Nebraska Movie Review

The AFI have released their official top 10 movie list of the year, and Alexander Payne's Nebraska is on that list. Here's my take on it...

Nebraska is directed by Alexander Payne and stars Bruce Dern and Will Forte. The film follows a character called Woody Grant (Dern), a damaged, delusional old man who believes he has won a million dollars from an online competition. His son David (Forte) agrees to drive him from Montana to Lincoln Nebraska so Woody can collect his winnings, despite David knowing his father has been scammed.

I had heard some good buzz surrounding Nebraska and I was hoping that this could be one of the better movies to come out in recent months. With Nebraska my experience was quite a weird one. For two thirds of this film I was sat there not knowing what to think about it. Fortunately, during the last third of the movie I finally understood what it was all about, and thus had a decent time with it.

Ultimately this film is not for all audiences. Some people would probably leave this movie because they could find all the scenes to be a little boring and to some extent, pointless. At times, the patience and tranquillity of Nebraska did bore before getting to the final third of the film. But when that light bulb finally went off in my head, I started to appreciate it.

As said previously, some of the scenes where characters are simply talking are quite dull. But, if you realise that those scenes are only put there to flesh-out and develop our understanding of the characters, you finally understand that those scenes all contribute to the films underlying message and the greater picture it's trying to show.

Alexander Payne does have good movies in his filmography and the key strength in them is usually the script. However, for Nebraska he did not write it. For me this wasn't an issue because I thought Nebraska's writing was actually it's strongest feature.

Nebraska excels at creating characters who feel like real people (characters who you can easily relate to) and the basis of that is a clever script that balances drama and comedy with a huge sense of reality.

Bruce Dern absolutely knocks it out of the park playing Woody Grant. As his character develops and shows his layers during this movie's natural progression, we finally understand why Woody does the things he does. At first you can't relate to him at all, but events unfold where by the movie's conclusion he is a changed man, and a relatable one.

I thought that his back and forth with his son, played by Will Forte, was also very realistically handled even if the old man really doesn't say much. As for Forte, he does a fine job in his quiet and emotionally connectable role.

The rest of the supporting cast never really steal the show and Bob Odenkirk does an ok job. But sometimes I couldn't help but think to myself "Better call Saul" every time he did that signature look of his. I watch too much Breaking Bad...

The movie does suffer with a fair few pacing issues in that I thought that the movie did take a very long time to wrap up. It also did slow down in the middle for about 20 minutes. Nebraska could have been better if it had a chunk of time chopped of the final cut.

As for the movie's visual style I have absolutely no complaints. The entire movie is shot in black, white and shades of grey which could come across as unnecessary, but trust me it isn't. The visual look just makes the movie feel old and secluded, much like the character of Woody Grant. The soundtrack is also relevant to the settings the characters find themselves in, plus has some real good things going for it behind the camera. Camera placement is precise and the shots builds themselves up patiently.

That's what Nebraska is, a patient story which is unique to anything else I've seen in 2013. Despite it's flaws it still left a reasonable impression on me, even if I'm not going to remember most of the scenes in it:


Rating - B


1 sentence summary - A quiet, patient and unique story with a great visual style, despite some issues with pacing and scene progression!


Best Picture nomination? Maybe. Best Picture Winner? Not a chance!

Thanks for reading,
Matt