Winning the lottery sounds too good to be true. In the case of scattered but determined Woody, it is. Played by stalwart Bruce Dern, in monochrome drama Nebraska (out this month on DVD/Blu-ray), retired mechanic Woody thinks he’s struck it rich. But, as his family repeatedly tell him, Woody’s lottery ticket is only a mass-produced advertisement. There’s no windfall. Just hot air.

Woody won’t hear it. The depleted, determined man keeps trying to walk to Nebraska, to collect his winnings. Well-meaning son David (Will Forte) offers to drive him. Their journey is a snails-pace road movie, which prides itself on understatement.

Fans of director Alexander Payne’s better-known work – Sideways and The Descendants – will warm to the low-key humour and endearing dysfunction. But the slow-burn pace and drip-fed dialogue can make you work hard at caring.

We get some tantalising tidbits about Woody, a bloke with fading faculties and buried pain. Nebraska could have given us more about Woody’s disappointing present, and distanced past, but it gives enough to enlighten David.

An adult child gaining valuable insight into a parent is a memorable component of Nebraska. Woody’s lottery fixation becomes a win for David, as it dredges up his dad’s background. David comes to love and respect his father more, because he discovers where Woody has come from, and what he’s gone through.

Relationships are founded upon personal information. Nebraska reminds that knowledge of someone’s past can give relationships a future, by providing the details necessary for viable connection.