Usually a person has to die before the vultures start circling.
These days, when a director chooses to shoot and/or release a film in black and white, it's more for artistic reasons than financial ones. That's certainly the case with Alexander Payne's Nebraska, which is a film where I can't even begin to imagine what it would look like in color. Less distinctive, probably. Even less flattering to the weathered visage of star Bruce Dern, almost definitely.
Looking every inch his 77 years, Dern delivers a vanity-free performance that cuts straight to his character's desperate need to have a reason to hold his head up high for once in his life. A man of few words, he ably projects the essence of a broken-down man grabbing for an ephemeral brass ring, much to the exasperation of his wife and two sons. After appearing all-too-briefly in About Schmidt as Jack Nicholson's wife, whose sudden death right after his retirement puts the kibosh on their plan to see the country together, June Squibb gets a meatier role this time around as Dern's salty-tongued spouse, who talks openly of putting him in a home. Older brother Bob Odenkirk, a local TV newsman making good, is prepared to go along with her, but younger brother Will Forte, a water-treading stereo salesman, indulges the old man by agreeing to drive him from their home in Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska, so he can try to claim his bogus million-dollar prize. Mostly, though, Forte does it to stop the old coot from doggedly try to get there on foot.
It should come as little surprise that this father-son road trip turns into a journey of discovery for both of them, especially when an untimely head injury necessitates an unscheduled stopover in Dern's hometown. There word spreads like wildfire about his apparent windfall, bringing greedy relatives and friends alike (including Dern's shady former business partner Stacy Keach) out of the woodwork. Screenwriter Bob Nelson makes sure the film's focus stays firmly where it should be, though: on the relationship between Dern and Forte. That's where the heart and soul of Nebraka truly lies.