June Squibb as Kate Grant, Woody's wife and David's mother, is a piece of work, but she seems at the end of her rope, as Woody leaves the house time and again to wander the road on foot in pursuit of his fantasy. Woody is an alcoholic, who is now slipping into dementia. What a mouth Kate has! Since she is elderly and now seems so stressed, I cut her slack, but I'd guess she was a feisty woman from a young age and not one to hold her tongue or mince words.
Writer Bob Nelson's excellent script contains many quotable lines, both funny and sad, and I laughed out loud and was near tears a number of times. Two examples:
David Grant: Where's your family?Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael's black and white scenes of the West during the road trip are lovely, indeed. Kudos to director Alexander Payne for pulling it all together to produce a very fine film. I can't recommend the movie highly enough.
Kate Grant: Oh, they're over in the Catholic cemetery. Catholics wouldn't be caught dead around all these damn Lutherans.
....
David Grant: How did you and mom end up getting married?
Woody Grant: She wanted to.
David Grant: And you didn't?
Woody Grant: I figured, what the hell.
David Grant: Were you ever sorry you married her?
Woody Grant: All the time.
We'd be good movie buddies, Grandmère. I like all your reviews, and I really agree with this one. I saw Nebraska in a movie theatre, which did the beautiful cinematography more justice than the TV screen can. But the characters and the script made this movie.
ReplyDeleteThe movie would have been lovely in the theater, but, since the theater in the next town over (We no longer have a theater) often doesn't show all the movies I want to see, I've sort of got out of the habit of looking to see what's showing. Since I subscribe to Netflix and pay to receive the DVDs by mail not too long after they're shown in theaters, that's my routine for now.
DeleteI loved "Nebraska", and, oddly enough, when I recall the scenery, I see it in color. Go figure. :-)