YMMV / Nebraska!

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Woody really so far gone due to the early stages of dementia that he actually believes that he's won the sweepstakes, or at some level is he of enough sound mind to realize that there is no million dollar prize but pretending that there is gives him something to look forward to and live for, however illusory? Woody's nonplussed reaction to the clerk at the office informing him that he didn't win anything, and his earlier conversation with David suggests that it's the latter.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The scenes where Kate visits the graveyard, and tells David about the lives of the deceased.
  Kate: There's Woody's little sister, Rose. She was only nineteen when she was killed in a car wreck near Wausa. What a whore...
  • And when she discovers across the tombstone of an old ex-boyfriend and then flashes it while saying "This is what you could have had if you didn't talk about wheat all the dang time!"
• Heartwarming Moments: After Woody fails to win the prize, David fulfills the two things that Woody was hoping to use the money on himself. And at the very end - David lets Woody drive his new truck right through the heart of Hawthorne as a way of showing off.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In this movie, Bob Odenkirk plays a character living in Nebraska in a film where everything is Deliberately Monochrome. Two years later, Odenkirk would star in Better Call Saul, which also has parts where a persona of his is living in a Deliberately Monochrome Nebraska.
• Moment of Awesome: Kate rightly telling off relatives who are trying to capitalize off of Woody's (alleged) fortune by calling in debts — debts that she knows don't exist because they owe him money, which she can confirm because she keeps careful track of their finances.
• Moral Event Horizon: It is bad enough when Ed Pegram threatens to sue Woody's family for a share of the non-existent prize money and revealing Woody's infidelity as backup that he's "owed" but publicly humiliating the doddering old man when the truth comes out is despicable.
  • Cole and Bart were lowlifes to begin with, but robbing their own elderly uncle to steal his coveted ticket and then being snide about it being fake pins them as irredeemable JerkAsses.
• Never Live It Down: "Two days to drive from Billings!"
• Tear Jerker: The premise itself is bad enough - an old man, obviously suffering from some mild dementia, gets so fixated on the idea that he was the "Big Winner!" of a sweepstakes that he memorized the form, much to his wife's surprise.
  • The biggest Tear Jerker moment comes after Ed Pegram humiliates Woody and David punches him for doing so. David asks his Dad why he wants the million dollars so bad besides for a truck.
    Woody: It's for you boys, I wanted to leave you something.
    David: We're fine, Dad. We don't need it.
    Woody: I just wanted to leave you something...
  • Then afterwards...
    Woody: All right. I'll shut up.
    David: And what about Lincoln?
    Woody: We don't have to go.
  • Seeing him admitting that he wanted to give and leave his sons something, as well as giving up on his fantasy, can double as a Heartwarming Moment as well.
  • And while he gets a nice hat (with "Prize Winner" written on it) as a consolation prize, the conversation between David and the receptionist is depressing.
    David: Does this happen a lot?
    Receptionist: Yeah. Every once in a while. Usually older people like your father. Does he have Alzheimer's?
    David: He just believes stuff that people tell him.

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