Fern (Frances McDormand) has lost everything in the Great Recession of 2011 and has moved into her van to join the itinerant workers of America. 

The wait for Nomadland to arrive on UK screens has been frustrating. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival just over seven months ago it has been a film to watch for a long time. Expectation built when it became an Oscar favourite and yet no release was forthcoming. Finally, hot off winning Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress at this year’s Academy Awards it is finally here. Perhaps it is the weight of expectation or perhaps simply it is that this would have been better as a documentary the fact that I found the film to be a massive disappointment is crushing. 

Nomadland sees us following Fern around the country as she finds seasonal low paid work. We learn about what brought her there and how she feels both forced into the life and deeply connected and freed by it. Throughout the story she meets real people playing versions of themselves. We meet Bob Wells, a real life guru of cheap RV living and Charlene Swankie, a veteran of nomad life amongst many others. Fern asks them questions, listens to their stories and learns useful tips to survive in the life. 

Fern’s fictional life is clearly weaved from an amalgamation of many others and there is a complex emotional story at its heart. But her character spends most of the film being a pseudo documentarian as she asks real people about their lives. Those stories and the entire nomadic lifestyle are intriguing and fascinating but I never felt the whole thing hung together as a dramatic film. 

For me the most stunning aspects of the film are when it went full Malick. There are many moments where we are treated to montages of stunning photography of nature backed by a beautiful score and even one with McDormand narrating Shakespeare. It is in these moments that the sense of yearning for something more that Fern holds is actually encompassed on screen. 

McDormand’s performance is brave and raw and Zhao directs some beautiful moments and draws solid performances from a mostly non professional cast. But for me this is the weakest of all of the films nominated for Best Picture this year and actually would have probably worked best as a documentary rather than a film. 

To be admired rather than enjoyed.