Though Will Forte is best known for his spot on “Saturday Night Live” and his goofy spin-off movie “MacGruber,” he shows off genuine acting chops in “Nebraska,” a poignant story about a father-son relationship. The film, directed by Alexander Payne (“The Descendants,” “Sideways”) follows David Grant (Forte) and his father Woody (Bruce Dern), who receives a notice suggesting he won $1 million and wants to travel from Billings, Mont. to Nebraska to claim the prize. Despite the clear false pretenses of the notice, Forte’s character agrees to drive his dad to Lincoln. They stop in Hawthorne, the small town in which Woody grew up, which provides the setting for much of the movie and reveals the humorous idiosyncrasies and drama of the Grant family.
The movie was filmed in 35 mm black and white, a style that was originally dismissed by Paramount, the film’s distributor. Ultimately, however, the black-and-white form lends well to the ambiguity of the time period of the film and the classic portrayal of the Midwest. It also complements Payne’s minimalist filming style — a style that may be off putting at first, but ultimately allows for the script to remain the primary element of the film. As Forte said about his acting style, “The script does so much of the work for you. It taught me not to try to act too much, just be in the moment.”
The movie surprises the audience with its comedy despite the plotline of an alcoholic and ornery parent becoming senile. Dern, who won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in the movie, has a remarkable ability to convey determination, helplessness, excitement and loneliness, all with very few words and within a very short amount of time. June Squibb steals the show as Kate Grant, Woody’s wife, whose foul mouth and forthright attitude makes you want her as a great aunt who tells great stories at the holidays — but only for those brief holiday visits.
The movie also includes a large number of non-professional actors who play various characters in the town and members of the Grant extended family. Given the current Hollywood landscape that tends to exclude older female actors, the inclusion of non-professional actors in these roles and others lends additional authenticity to Hawthorne.
At the 2013 Virginia Film Festival, Forte was interviewed with a litany of slightly cringe-inducing questions, such as “When you watch the film, do you see parts of your acting that you regret or that make you feel uncomfortable?” or “The film depicts a sort of nonsense view of the Midwest. Do you think people from Nebraska would be offended?” But Forte fielded the questions with great poise and concluded beautifully, “There are crazy people everywhere. And wonderful people everywhere. But the movie could have taken place anywhere and shown [the same humanity].”
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