I think the theme was the relationship or non relationship between a father and son. The father had early dementia but it was difficult to say how much dementia and how much was just lack of communication and not being present and being of a generation and culture where no one said much of anything.
Bruce Dern played the dad and Will Forte (from SNL; i think this is the first time I've seen a former SNL performer doing a dramatic role; Forte was very good) was the son. Dern got a promotion letter from a magazine subscription service telling him he had won a million dollars IF and there was the small print which he didn't read or understand. So he gets obsessed with going to Lincoln, Nebraska (from Billings, MT) to claim his prize.
And the movie is about the relatives who want a piece of that money, a former co-owner of a garage who felt he was owed money, a girlfriend of Dern's before he married his wife, some information about Dern's early life that the son had no idea about, etc.
There was no tension in the movie; just a leisurely telling of this man's quest to get his money and the son who took him on the trip.
The movie was shot in black and white which i didn't like and because i was always conscious of watching a movie, this lack of color bothered me pretty much throughout the film. I think the director wanted to emphasize the bleakness and mediocrity and sameness of the landscape of both the land and the people but i think that could have been accomplished with color.
We rated it a 7.
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