Nebraska

When a JayFlix.net participant tells me to see a movie, I usually do! This time is no different, and, as usual, I'm really glad I did. (And the Golden Globes agreed with five nominations.) In my personal experience, I have... TWICE... heard that someone had won a sweepstakes, only to discover that it was early onset senile dementia or in the other case, Alzheimer's. This is what we suspect when our elderly hero sets out for Lincoln, Nebraska to collect his million dollars. Problem is, he no longer has a working vehicle, nor does he have a driver's license, so he's walking...from Montana. His son is pulled into the story by his besieged wife.

Full disclosure, I spent my early years on a farm in South Dakota, so the production design, the clothes, the speech patterns, the scenery, the pace, the people, and the small faded towns of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska evoked fond memories. (No, I didn't have an unhappy childhood, sorry...)

We watch:

• Bruce Dern ("Madison") is the booze-addled curmudgeon who wants his million dollars. Dern has worked for decades before landing this role of a lifetime. He won "Best Actor" at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for this performance.
• Will Forte ("Saturday Night Live") is his unfortunate son, unable to talk his father out of that haywire obsession.
• June Squibb ("About Schmidt") is the wife with a tongue like barbed wire. She has lashed her husband for decades until he rarely hears a word she says.
• Bob Odenkirk (Lots of TV) is the "good" son who has landed a job as a television newscaster. When he gets into a fight he shouts, "Don't hit the face!"
• Stacy Keach (Lots of television) is a former business partner who sees this unexpected windfall as a way to get some money from our hero.

It's difficult to realize that all those authentic relatives and neighbors are actors! Director Alexander Payne ("Sideways") has evoked astonishingly pure performances, bona fide settings, and credible situations. This tiny little R-rated domestic dramedy is no more than a tempest in a teapot, but we come to care a great deal about what happens to these people.

Payne doesn't often make movies, but when he does....Oh My!

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See for yourself:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2790959385/
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