Reviews & Ratings for
Nebraska (2013)

Old age has never looked this bleak and yet so humorous in a long long time. Nebraska is a black and white indie movie about an old man who mistakenly assumes that he has won a lottery and is adamant on claiming his prize. The man's sons try telling him the truth but he doesn't listen, and so he sets out on his journey to claim the prize with his son.

Nebraska is a mixture of a road movie and a deeply contemplative human drama. Bruce Dern delivers a stunning performance as the central character Woody Grant who is hard of hearing and is slow to understand things in his senile years. On his way to claiming the prize he stops by his old town and meets his old friends and families.

The movie is a slow paced drama about old age, yet it maintains a consistent tone of black humour and wit even in the most serious situations. The soundtrack consisting of calming guitar tunes is a great addition to the movie, it puts the viewers in a calm reflective movie June Squibb takes the cake with her bold, quick-talking snappy lady character who doesn't care about what others say about her. The ending is one of the sweetest things that I've seen recently. This is a movie that stays with you long after its over.

An ageing man sets out on a journey to claim his million dollar sweepstakes. But wait, has he actually won it?

Nebraska starts as a road trip the Grants, Woody(Bruce Dern) and his son David(Will Forte) take up as the father’s last-ditch efforts to finally achieve something in his worthless life.

Woody is a drunk old guy, who keeps forgetting things but makes it sort of his dying wish to get to Nebraska and claim his Million Dollar Sweepstake which he doesn’t know is just an advertisement gimmick.

He persuaded his son to take him to Nebraska in their old car, dodging his wife Kate(June Squib) who is one heck of a lady for her age and start the road trip.

They visit their old town where Woody has some unfinished business with Ed(money issues) and brawls in the local pub, becomes a town hero by declaring he has won a million dollar and becomes the centre of attention for the whole town.

But his attention is short-lived as Ed opens his eyes to the fact that it's just sweepstakes and not that he has earned a single buck and was just boasting around the town like a drunk who has gone mad.

David, in his quest to understand his dysfunctional father tries to convince him to just end his journey and just be done with it but heck they give it a shot and reach Nebraska finally where some surprise awaits old Woody
It's a light humoured movie with a brilliant background score and some performance of a lifetime by Bruce Dern and June Squib.

Although a bit slow for a road trip, it starts to grow on you after the first 20 minutes and then another road trip starts in your mind which is much more enjoyable and which feels more real
Special mention:
1)The Graveyard – Kate Scenario
2)The bar brawl of Woody

A must watch it if a good, light drama is what you are looking for to freshen up your mind.