Friday, November 18, 2011 at 10:00AM Movie Review: 'The Descendants'
| The Descendants
Starring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller
|
Writer-director Alexander Payne treats us to a deeply moving story of a family that is forced to confront the very demons that led to it being so fractured. The Descendants stars George Clooney in this adaptation of a 2007 novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The trio of Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rush are credited with writing the screenplay and what a screenplay at that.
The Descendants opens with a woman, Elizabeth King (Patricia Hastie), appearing to be totally enthralled with life, her eyes aglow and smiling as sea spray indicates that she’s on some type of fast moving watercraft. The next time we see her it’s with a very different look on her face. Clooney plays the woman’s husband, Matt King, a workaholic lawyer and as we soon learn - absentee father and husband. While Hawaii is a place that many of us believe to be the ultimate paradise, Clooney (via straight-to-the-point narration) bursts our bubble right from the get-go with the bombshell “Paradise can go f**k itself”.
That comment is especially telling as Matt is the trustee to 25,000 acres of pristine island oceanfront land he co-owns with his cousins, descendants of Edward King and Princess Kekipi - the last direct descendant of King Kamehameha. These descendants are in the last stages of choosing a developer that will make them all very rich (and thrust them into the top “1%”, if they aren’t already there).
Perhaps it was that monumental responsibility that enabled Matt to be comfortable as the “back-up” parent, but that role quickly vanishes as he is forced to deal with his wife’s water-skiing accident that has left her in a vegetative coma. Matt, along with his precocious 10-year-old daughter, Scottie (Amara Miller), go off to retrieve older daughter Alex (Shailene Woodley) from boarding school. If the sight of his 17 year old being drunk wasn’t distressing enough, Matt soon learns from the condescending wild-child that her acting out can be at least partially blamed on discovering her mother’s cheating ways.
As he so aptly manages, Payne draws the audience in with these types of dramatic revelations while mixing in the totally unexpected humor shots; such as the scene that shows a clearly manic Matt rushing out of his house and running (in sandals) to the home of his wife’s best friend. We can’t help to be amused yet feel his desperation to confront the truth. Time and time again, Payne drops these pearls of humorous side-bars at equally critical moments, such as the denouement of the scene when Matthew finally tracks down the man who has cuckolded him.
I believe this to be the most honest and finest performance of George Clooney’s career. We don’t ever get the usual smugness that we have been accustomed to seeing from this Hollywood giant. Instead we are treated with an almost perfect display of human emotions you would expect to see from someone in his situation. His performance is the main reason the almost two hours pass by effortlessly as you bear witness to his life’s gut-churning events. Clooney shines as he bears the burden of carrying this film, although the break-out performance of Shailene Woodley was a joy to behold. Ms. Woodley deftly weaves her character’s transformation from sullen and disconnected to insightful and supportive.
The Descendants is basically a very simple story, yet Alexander Payne skillfully directs the rich and subtly layered story of love, betrayal, dignity and respect. He shows us that even in Hawaii a person can lose sight of the most important things in life.
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I can't wait to see it! Great review I think it's too realistic for it to be a blockbuster hit but maybe a quite classic that represents the problems of our time period. Anyways thanks for the review.