At the screening of Nebraska The Sloth attended, the security guard, supposedly there to watch us like an anti-piracy hawk, spent the entire film craning round at the screen and chortling contentedly, such is its charm.

Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is old, cantankerous and an alcoholic with memory problems. He’s also received a scam letter congratulating him as the lucky prize winner of a million dollars and is obsessed with following its instructions to head to Nebraska, several hundred miles away, to collect his winnings. No amount of hectoring by his wife Kate (June Squibb) or sons David (Will Forte) and Ross (Bob Odenkirk) can persuade him to the contrary and Bruce is repeatedly picked up by the police while shuffling determinedly along the freeway. In desperation, David decides the only solution is to take Woody to Nebraska to prove he hasn’t won anything. And so begins the traditional Movie Road Trip.

Their journey takes them back through Woody’s home town, Hicksville USA, to meet with long lost family and friends. But on hearing of Woody’s supposed fortune, old resentments and tensions start to brew, not least between Woody and David as Woody’s remiss alcoholic past catches up with him.

Now this could get too sentimental, all father/son emotional bonding etc etc. But there is enough darkness, as well as scenes of laugh out loud humour, to keep things the right side of sweet. And it’s the characters that make it. Woody is fabulous. Grumpy, whiskered, wild-eyed and wild-haired, he’s a sort of Grandad Everyman, equally frustrating and endearing. Wife Kate is sweary, outrageous and lacking a good word to say about anyone. Add some hysterical peripherals – watch out for the driving obsessed identical twin cousins – and it makes for a memorable trip. The Sloth was truly sad to get out the car at the end.

UK release 6 December 2013