What happens when your zip code is erased? Where do you go? What do you do? Your home and your community, according to the post office, no longer exist. This is the circumstance in which we find Fern, the lead character in the 2020 film, Nomadland.
Fern is in her early sixties. Her husband has recently died and she answers the challenge of where to go and what to do by packing up a van and hitting the road. Fern becomes a nomad and she takes us on the journey into her new life.
This film is called Nomadland, but it could well have been called True Grit, because that is what Fern demonstrates as she adjusts to her new way of life.
It has been said that Frances McDormand is one of the most accomplished actresses of her generation. This film proves the truth of that statement. She is brilliant. In the opening scenes when she goes through her stored possessions, she has me close to tears. She holds her husband's jacket and her face is a subtle study in grief.
From that moment we understand she is not simply leaving a ghost town behind. She is leaving, or at least trying to leave, profound grief.
In the clip (below) at a nomad community, we get a glimpse of the emotional motivation behind Fern's journey.
Near the end of the film one of her fellow nomads explains that being on the road means never having to say goodbye. We realize at this point that Fern is on the road not only because it is an answer to her economic situation, but also because staying hurts too much.
One of her friends, a fellow nomad, has a terminal cancer diagnosis. She has decided she would rather be on the road than in a hospital waiting to die.
The magic in this movie resides not only in McDormand's performance. It rests also in her fellow 'actors'. Almost all of them are not acting. They are truly nomads. They live on the road. They are part of a mobile community that travels from place to place, a kind of underground society of people who, for one reason or another, have taken up anchor and have decided to keep moving.
To be sure, the motivation for all of them seems to be essentially economic. The first stop Fern makes is at a campground near an Amazon warehouse. She arrives at night and the next morning goes to work at the warehouse. It's Christmas. Amazon needs seasonal workers.
We go in the warehouse with Fern. We watch her packing Amazon boxes.
So that's what it's like, I thought as I watched Fern pack a box and put an Amazon seal on it. I order from Amazon all the time and don't think much about the people who pack those boxes.
We meet Fern's coworkers. These are actual Amazon seasonal employees. One of them, Linda May, is someone Fern has met previously.
After work Linda May goes back to Fern's van and Fern explains how she has modified the vehicle to be a living space. There's a stove and cabinets. A sleeping space. A few treasures saved from her former life.
When Fern is at a store she runs into someone from her previous life, a woman with two daughters. The woman invites Fern to stay with the family. One of the children states, "Mom says you're homeless."
Fern answers, "No, I'm not homeless. I'm houseless. It's not the same thing, is it?"
Throughout the movie Fern has a number of opportunities to leave the nomad life. She is invited to stay at her sister's. She is invited to stay at the home of a fellow nomad who has settled down. In each case she chooses to move on.
She learns life skills from her fellow nomads. She learns how to barter. How to care for her van. All the while we fear for Fern's safety, a woman alone. Every now and then it seems she also has a thought about her vulnerability, but she puts her trust in her own skills and in the community of nomads who travel the roads with her.
The nomads are not freeloaders. They are survivors. When Fern's van breaks down and she needs $2300 to fix it, she calls her sister for a loan, not a handout. Here is the scene where the mechanic advises her to sell the van.
This movie struck home with me because it is made so well, because the acting is brilliant, and because it is real. I remembered what one of my children said to me after she had bought a small camper.
"If I'm ever homeless," my child said, "I'll have a place to stay."
Nomadland showed me exactly how that would work out. I don't think many people plan to be homeless...or, as Fern says, houseless.
One of Fern's fellow nomads goes to the Social Security office to ask about benefits. She is 62 and learns that her monthly benefit would be $550. She realizes she can't live on that. Then she hears of a nomad community where cheap RV living is possible on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land.
This is a great movie, but not a perfect movie. I love good writing so I always consider the script. While most of the film has a real feel...indeed is real because some of the people speak for themselves...some of it is scripted. I take issue with at least two parts of that script.
Fern goes to Amazon because it's Christmas and there is a need for seasonal workers. However, the filmmakers play up the fact that it's Christmas in order to emphasize Fern's solitude. They even have her softly singing a Christmas carol to herself.
We don't need Christmas to feel Fern's solitude. That's an unnecessary attempt to manipulate our feelings and I don't believe it belongs in the movie.
Also, when Fern runs into the mother with her two daughters (referenced earlier in this blog) one of the girls quotes Macbeth's soliloquy: "Tommorrow, and tommorrow, and tommorrow..."
The script writer is telling us how to feel about Fern's nomad life. In such a 'real' movie the scene stands out as artificial.
Those two notes aside, the film is wonderful. Unforgettable. McDormand turns in one of the best performances of her life, I think, and that's saying something.
Besides McDormand, David Strathairn turns in an excellent performance.
Some Data Points: The movie is based on a book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century* by Jessica Bruder. Bruder lived the nomad life for several months as research for her book.
McDormand has credit as a producer of the film.
The following is from IMDB:
Director: Chloé Zhao
Writers: Chloé Zhao, Jessica Bruder
Stars: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May
I watched the movie on Netflix
Rating: 95/100
