Many reviewers found that the rough life of nomads in the US has been idealised and that the movie does not really show the daily hardships they endure.
I agree. But the movie is about something else. The main character, the great Frances McDormand, is not happy but it is resilient. She is not a good person in particular but can be kind and warm to others and kind and warm to herself. She lives her life unfazed by the hardships she has to endure and that have sucked most of the vitality or feelings out of her. She is not capable to settle down, not capable to fall in love, not capable to make friends or laugh or have a good time. As if ever since her husband died and the town that she lived in disbanded her soul has been taken away as well.
The movie ends with her visiting her former town and finding her empty home. It looks less hospitable than her tiny van, where she spends all her life. But the empty house might be also a metaphor for her heart, her soul, her body depleted of all energies. Fern- what a lovely name - does not really live as a nomad. She merely lingers the vast American plains, surviving and resisting. The movie is about resilience, is about injustice and hardship. It shows all these in the most wonderful way.
The movie ends with her visiting her former town and finding her empty home. It looks less hospitable than her tiny van, where she spends all her life. But the empty house might be also a metaphor for her heart, her soul, her body depleted of all energies. Fern- what a lovely name - does not really live as a nomad. She merely lingers the vast American plains, surviving and resisting. The movie is about resilience, is about injustice and hardship. It shows all these in the most wonderful way.