/ Jiang Xiaomao
2014-02-20
Alexander Payne may rarely receive absolute praise, but it seems that he will rarely be severely disparaged . There are few violent and eruptive emotions in his films, and the story is boiled down to the mellowness by the skill of slow cooking. The agility and smoothness of the lines give Payne's film a little "prose" flavor. Perhaps because of this, watching Payne's films has become a comfortable, comfortable enjoyment.
The story of “Nebraska” began with a million-dollar ad letter and an old man “as stubborn as a donkey”, Woody Grant. The ad letter says that if your number is the winning number, you can get a million dollar prize. Whether unintentionally or persistently, the old Woody ignored the word "if" on the letter and believed that he had won the million-dollar jackpot. Regardless of the persuasion of the two sons or the teasing of his wife Kate Grant, the old Woody decided to go to Lincoln to collect his bonus, even if it was a hike along the highway alone. Like many road films, the end of the journey gradually becomes an inconsequential marker; even talking about the "meaning" of the journey has become a rigid outline. Along the way, memories, life - the journey becomes a pot of sake to be enjoyed slowly, intoxicated or sober, depending on personal commitment.
Life without "ifs" loses many elements - imagination, hope, regret and choice are just a glimpse of the many filtered out. A life with the "if" washed away is like a pill with its sugar coating removed. There is no deception and self-deception, and only its most authentic taste remains - which may be part of the reason why the film chooses to present it in black and white. But for Nebraska, or for an Alexander Payne film, the pill is anything but bitter to swallow. Like the ubiquitous humor, jokes and sentimentality in the film, life itself is a mixture of flavors and emotions. The beautiful and embarrassing past that "Nebraska" slowly reveals does not seem to be much different from the wrinkles on Woody Grant's forehead - those are facts that cannot be changed by human beings; What does it mean now? When a person enters old age, even fresh wounds and blood are washed away from the color of passion; it is better to focus on the reality of the past when entangled in the past - this is the stubbornness of old Woody Grant, and it is also his most likable shining point.
The journey in Nebraska goes both ways: it looks into the future and it looks back into the past. But even with memory mining playing such a large part in the film, Nebraska still doesn't use a single flashback. Old Woody's words are few and far between, and his past is mostly reflected by the people and environment around him: a friend/partner, a relative who can't sit at a table, an old lover who opened a newspaper office, an abandoned ancestral house on the wilderness. We have pieced together the broken life of old Woody from the many words; it tends to be flat, it has no great novelty, it may be the intersection of your daily life and mine. The camera also seems to be moving forward in one direction in accordance with time: since life can only be headed forward, flashbacks become unnatural interference; since people in their old age have given up all assumptions about "what if" and focus on the present and the future Not being the greatest favor to others and oneself. For the old Woody, there is only one direction for the present and the future - Lincoln, and the million dollars promised in the advertising letter.
This million-dollar promise, which is almost empty, is the only hope for old Woody in this world of black, white and different shades of gray. After the advertisement letter was "robbed", he sat alone in a small dark room, substituting milk for wine, and was secretly sentimental; after his son David suggested to find the letter, he immediately regained his energy and his eyes lit up; After the friend teased himself in the bar with the advertising letter, he just silently retrieved this so-called ridiculous and sad hope, carefully folded it according to the original crease, and put it into the inner pocket of his jacket. What is ridiculous and sad is not the stubbornness of old Woody, but his indebtedness and love to his two sons; he wants to use the winning money to buy himself a brand new truck, although he has almost lost the ability to drive at his age, The rest is left to the sons. "I just wanted to leave something for you guys" - having passed the age where you can indulge in the "if" imagination, being worthy of the present is the whole purpose of old Woody's life.
The stubborn old Woody refused to give in to the young world until the advertising letter was scrapped, and in the end, the young world gave in to him. Son David sold his car and replaced his father with a pickup - although not brand new, but enough to satisfy old Woody's little dream; the son also bought his father a brand new air compressor - although this thing Completely useless, but also a kind of compensation for the father's past. A composition similar to a "multi-layered frame" appears many times in the film: the old Woody looks into the distance, David looks at his father, and we look at the subtle emotional connection between the two generations. Every generation has its own stubborn dreams, and through this trip, the multi-layered watch has finally become a reality that can be expressed and spoken. When old Woody drove through town in a pickup truck bought by his son, it seemed that the ugliness of human nature revealed by the trip had been wiped out; he still had a knife-mouthed and tofu-hearted wife, and a watchman-turned-guardian son. As conveyed by the last set of shots in the film, the road continues and life continues; people and things are just a small corner of the big world. The film is here, enough to make people fascinated by its mellow fragrance.
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