Alexander Payne thinks himself a comedian. The films he directs have comedy hidden in the fabric but you don’t necessarily notice because the content is usually pretty heavy, pretty dour.
Take his Academy Award winning film The Descendants, from a couple years ago. There you had George Clooney struggle with a tangled ton of life’s problems as he comes to terms with his wife’s infidelity as she laid fading away in a coma, twisted and dying in a hospital bed. But the film has so many laugh out loud moments, many out of amazed frustration, that makes the film not a tragedy but a real life comedy that delivers some pain with the hilarity. It is no question why Payne recruited two very funny men to co-write the script with him; Nat Faxon and Jim Rash- both alums of the LA comedy troupe The Groundlings.
Hell, Payne even co-wrote the script for the (slightly) homophobic Adam Sandler/ Kevin James vehicle “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry”. See? He wants to be a funny man. But what separates his films from “We’re the Millers” is that he always has to put his characters in interesting situations (save for “Chuck & Larry”) that allows for very personal and exciting films.
With his newest film, Nebraska, Payne has made a High Brow/ Low Concept Comedy that plays like an Adam Sandler picture as directed by John Sayles. This time he grabbed former Saturday Night Live cast member Will Forte to assist in the funny but (as you probably have heard by now) it is veteran actor Bruce Dern who grounds the film, letting the offbeat world of Nebraska unfold around him.
Dern plays Woody Grant, a man of little words. He stumbles through the barren, black and white landscapes of the film much like a toddler as his age has brought a second childishness that frustrates the hell out of his outspoken wife, Kate (June Squibb in a turn that may bring her an Oscar nod as well). Woody has received a sweepstakes letter in the mail claiming that he has won a $1,000,000. All he has to do is claim the prize (and subscribe to a couple of magazines) in Lincoln, NE. He recruits his son David (Forte) to drive him there for his money, which David reluctant does with the hope of some father/son bonding on the way.
The pair gets waylaid in Woody’s hometown of Hawthorne on the way to the claiming and David is able to see some of the reason why he and his father never really connected. Nebraska sits firmly in a reoccurring theme for Payne: Coming to terms and accepting deeply flawed relationships with people who can’t communicate. David tries to understand and love his father just as Clooney find forgiveness for his dying wife in that hospital bed.
Nebraska is a bit bizarre and tromps along at its own rhythm. It took me about 15 or 20 minutes to get into the film’s groove but once I eased into cadence, it became delightful. Awkward at first, then lovely. With its black and white photography, the film could be misconstrued as pretentious but the look only adds to the lack of life that haunts the film. There are plenty of laughs and this is Payne’s most straight forward comedy since Election.
Forte holds his own and makes his David a sad man that is looking for connection. This is a far stretch from MacGruber (a movie I loved BTW) and he is at home in this hybrid dramady. As Payne does, the film’s ancillary characters are portrayed by amateur actors that provide an artificial element which keeps the film off-kilter.
As for Bruce Dern, I applaud the performance which is subtle and heartbreaking. Having watch people in my own life wither away during the twilight like that, I see the truth in his work here. His Woody is Spectacular.