“Great” Scott’s Truly
Great Nebraska Review…of Greatness
Title
Nebraska
IMDB
Page
One-Sentence
Summary
A schluby guy and his drunken,
slightly demented, psychologically broken old man take a trip from Montana to Nebraska
to claim a Publisher’s Clearinghouse-esque million-dollar prize.
What’s
Great About It
The acting is top notch. Bruce Dern deserves every bit of praise he’s
gotten. June Squibb (Dern’s wife in the
movie) is also phenomenal. Considering
Will Forte also played MacGruber, he does an admirable job in his role as Dern’s
son.
What’s
Not-So-Great About It
This movie is pretty damned
depressing. Even when it’s funny, which
it is, it becomes depressing a few seconds later. I heard the movie isn’t really in black and
white; the color just quit because the movie was so depressing. While that’s a credit to the actors and the
director, this movie won’t be for everyone.
Also, Bob Odenkirk stands out like a sore thumb in this movie…he does a
good job, but he’s clearly in “Saul Goodman” overreact-to-everything mode.
Rating
GGG
Explanation
What would you do if your aging,
drunken father won a million dollars?
What would you do if you knew damn well it was a sham, but couldn’t
convince him otherwise? Well, that’s the
question in this movie. Bruce Dern plays
Woody Grant, a drunken war veteran who is convinced he’s won a million bucks. He’s so convinced that he keeps “escaping” to
walk from Montana to Nebraska on foot to claim it. Finally, his son, David (Will Forte), figures
that driving Woody and proving him wrong would be better than letting him walk
on his own. So, this depressing road
trip begins. Along the way we learn that
David is an unmotivated dweeb and Woody and his wife (played pretty
hysterically by June Squibb) are only married because Woody was kind of
unmotivated to find anyone else. We
learn A LOT more along the way…sometimes even too much, but I’ll leave that for
you. We also learn that Woody’s family
is pretty scummy, adding to the depressing vibe of the film.
I won’t get too much deeper into
the story, but I will explain why I only gave this three Gs (Good) out of
five. Don’t get me wrong, the acting in
this movie is spectacular…Dern and Squibb certainly deserve the acclaim they’ve
been getting. Forte and Odenkirk are
both great, and Stacy Keach does a really good job of playing Woody’s former
business partner. The problem this movie
has is something I’ve figured out is “reverse synergy.” The acting is great; the casting was
brilliant; and the direction and cinematography do a great job of making everything
look cloudy, bleak, and hopeless. The
problem is, it’s too hopeless and the movie just isn’t as entertaining because
of it. The parts work together to make
the movie LESS entertaining. After every
humorous exchange, I started to feel a little depressed again. I know that the movie is just doing its job,
but maybe it did it TOO well.
In summary, if you want to see a
good movie that’s well acted, well directed, and well shot, go ahead and try
this out…but if your pet recently died or you just lost your job, maybe avoid
this movie…it might push you over the edge, if you know what I’m saying…
No comments:
Post a Comment