Nebraska

Bruce Dern, Will Forte     D/ Alexander Payne

It took a while for me to get into this...it wasn't clear for an hour or so what he was trying to do with this story. Payne has been a gentle humanist but here we were following an obnoxious, senile irresponsible jerk who was demented enough to believe he had won a sweepstakes lottery. He travels to his home town on the way to pick up his winnings with his long-suffering son. The townsfolk are portrayed as lazy, stupid, old...and eventually mean and greedy...fools.

An hour in the snark moves aside and something comedic occurs. From that point we are in a comedy which was only funny sometimes. Payne's take on rural Nebraska is pretty harsh...but the exquisite widescreen B/W photography balances that. The resolution was pat crowd-pleaser which accounts for the film's popularity.

I had mixed feelings about the film...for me it was annoying, exasperating, sharply etched, washed in nostalgia which avoided cloying, sad and vaguely poignant. I got real tired of Woody Grant after a while (huh? he said looking around blankly). Made me grateful I don't have to deal with someone like that.

I wouldn't watch it again but I'm not sorry I saw it the first time.

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