‘Nomadland’ with Frances McDormand is one of this year’s best movies

The movie explores the joys and challenges of life on the road in America

Today's expression: Run into
Explore more: Lesson #346
March 15, 2021:

Chloé Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’ explores the reality of nomad life in America through the lens of a widow forced into life on the road. It takes you through an exciting and mysterious plot and might even convince you that all who wander are not lost. This one is worth watching. Plus, learn “run into.”

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Nomadland with Frances McDormand is one of this year’s best movies

Lesson summary

Hi there, thanks for joining us for Plain English lesson number 346. I’m Jeff; JR is the producer; and this full lesson can be found at PlainEnglish.com/346.

Coming up today: we’re going to talk about one of the year’s best movies, Nomadland. This isn’t a movie with an exciting or mysterious plot, so there aren’t any real spoilers. But like always, I do describe some scenes and characters. So if you don’t want to know anything about Nomadland, then maybe save this lesson for until after you watch it. However, I can assure you that you can still enjoy this great movie even after hearing this lesson. I won’t spoil the fun for you. In the second half of today’s lesson, we review a phrasal verb, “run into” and we have a quote of the week.

‘Nomadland’ gives voice to an overlooked lifestyle

In Nomadland, we meet a character and a lifestyle that’s not often given a prominent role in Hollywood movies. The main character, Fern, is a sixty-one-year-old widow. The small western town of Empire, Nevada, is reeling after its biggest employer shuts down. Fern’s husband worked there before he died. Without the main employer, there are few jobs for the many unemployed people to take. A worker at the employment agency advises Fern to start taking Social Security, her government pension, instead of trying to find work.

Fern’s pension would not be enough to live on, so she becomes a nomad: a person who moves from place to place. It’s a romantic concept: as a nomad, you’re never tied down; a new adventure always awaits. The world is in the palm of your hand. The term “digital nomad” means someone with an online business or location-independent job that hops around from place to glamorous place—Bali this month, Medellín next month, Estonia the month after that.

Fern isn’t that kind of nomad. Without savings or a steady income, she bounces from job to job. She sleeps in her van at RV parks, areas where you can either camp or stay in your vehicle and enjoy some amenities.

The first job we see is at an Amazon warehouse, presumably during the holiday shopping rush. Later, she gets a job as a guide at Badlands National Park in South Dakota; she works another season at Wall Drug, a big tourist attraction for road-trippers out west. She meets good friends. One convinces her to attend a convention for nomads in the south. There, she finds more friends, a support system, and a community of people who lead a similar lifestyle, some by choice, others not. Most are older, all are living on the fringes of the economy. The jobs they get are insecure and pay low wages.

The most poignant scene takes place in a sporting goods store back in Empire, Nevada. Fern is idly browsing camping gear and falls asleep in a chair. She wakes up with a start and runs into an acquaintance: a mother with her teenage daughter. The mother is younger than Fern is, stylish and comfortable-looking. We learn they had been friends before, and that Fern had even tutored the daughter.

The mother gives Fern a compassionate look and delicately inquires about where Fern is living. When Fern answers that she is in her van, she implies that it’s temporary, that she’s between houses. The mother leans in and offers, in a quiet voice, to let Fern stay with them. Fern won’t hear of it; she has her pride and won’t let herself accept the charity of another person. She declines the offer, and it clearly pains the mother that her offer was not accepted.

A few seconds later, the teenager approaches Fern without her mother present. They chat pleasantly for a bit. “My mom says you’re homeless,” the teenager then says. “Is that true?” And so we learn what is said about Fern behind closed doors. We can feel the judgment in the word “homeless” and the way it wounds Fern’s pride. Fern replies that she isn’t homeless; she’s just “house-less.”

But she is homeless in the way most people understand the word. She doesn’t have a fixed address. She doesn’t have a bathroom or running water. All her belongings are in a van.

She has a friend, Dave, who harbors romantic thoughts for Fern. Dave is on the road too, moving from job to job in the west. He has a complicated family history, but his son invites him to visit his newborn grandchild. He invites Fern along; Fern, surprisingly, accepts. The house is beautiful, warm, and welcoming. There is good food and wine at dinner. The furniture is comfortable. There’s a nice yard. It’s everything you would want in a family home. It’s the picture-perfect definition of family and comfort.

Fern hates it. She clearly doesn’t fit in. She can’t seem to join in the conversation. The rest of the family looks at her with a mixture of suspicion and concern. At night, Fern lies awake in the comfortable bed in a well-appointed bedroom by herself. She can’t sleep. In the darkness, she flees and sleeps the rest of the night in her van, parked in the driveway.

There are several scenes like this. We don’t know exactly what Fern wants or how she feels. She is mourning the loss of her husband and the life they had lived together. She reminisces about their modest home in Empire, with a clear view to the mountains. But she can’t go back to that house and doesn’t try to re-create that life elsewhere.

She can work. We see that she’s a hard worker: she moves from job to job, but she doesn’t ever get fired. She goofs off a little, but never acts unethically. She’s good with people. There should be a place for her in this world to work, to build a stable life. But the lure of the road is always calling, no job is worth sticking around for, and Fern seems never to be able to stay in one spot. Without the stability of a paycheck, she’s always just one crisis away from desperation.

People help. Other nomads take her under their wing, teaching her how to survive in a van—how to use a makeshift toilet, how to repair a flat tire, how to find the parking lots that let you stay overnight. Her sister lends her money. Dave is a good friend and wants to be more. But as soon as anyone gets close emotionally, to help in more than just a material way, Fern withdraws. The road is always an excuse to put distance between her and others.

The emotion I felt during the whole movie is this desperate sadness, this idea that Fern has been robbed of a life with her husband and simultaneously robbed of the town where they lived. Unable to grieve in comfortable surroundings and without a support system, Fern is cut loose to a world she wasn’t quite prepared to live in.

The end is disquieting. The main conflict is not resolved; she doesn’t live happily ever after in a beautiful home with Dave. It challenges you to think, though, that maybe she is happy in her own way. Not everyone’s happiness will look the same, nor everyone’s grief.

Real nomads in supporting roles

If you’re in the US, you can stream Nomadland on Hulu. If you’re outside the US, as most of you are, you can find it on Disney+ either this month or next month.

An interesting fact is that several of the actors in the movie played themselves; they are nomads in real life. So in Thursday’s lesson, we’ll talk about a few of the real people who appear in the movie.

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Expression: Run into