Merie Wallace/Fox Searchlight Films
Matt King (George Clooney) tries to connect with daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) in "The Descendants."
"The Descendants" seems certain to be nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and possibly Best Supporting Actress. By the time the Oscars roll around, it might even be considered the front-runner in most of these categories.
Adapted from a 2008 novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, "The Descendants" is the first film in seven years from director and (in this case) co-screenwriter Alexander Payne, whose previous film was the superior "Sideways," with Paul Giamatti as a self-destructive and merlot-phobic alcoholic oeniphile. Payne specializes in depictions of aging white males in crisis, and his hero this time is George Clooney as lawyer Matt King, whose surname is significant: Although he is haole (a white person in Hawaii), he has Hawaiian royalty in his blood.
"The Descendants" is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine ...
Rating: R for language including some sexual references
Length: 115 minutes
Released: December 9, 2011 Limited
Cast: George Clooney, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard, Robert Forster
Director: Alexander Payne
Writer: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
As the film opens, Matt is coping with two tough situations: His wife is on life support, in a coma, following a speedboat accident; and, as trustee, it's up to him to decide what to do with the family's "huge parcel of virgin land" on the island of Kauai, deeded to the Kings in the 1860s. Unsurprisingly, most of the King cousins want to sell the 25,000 beachfront acres, which are worth millions.
Like most Payne protagonists, King speaks in voiceover narration, which in this case is generally redundant and annoying. The movie begins with a monologue, cut to a montage of Hawaiian traffic jams, homeless people and other urban scenes that suggest Anymetropolis, U.S.A. This allows Matt to pooh-pooh the mainland belief that Hawaii is an endless paradise, yet once the story begins, we see that Matt lives in a large, lovely home surrounded by tropical flowers, with palm trees painted on the walls. Everybody walks around in shorts and floral-patterned shirts. Yes, the family is facing tragedy, but every scene after the protests-too-much opening seems to contradict the notion that Hawaii is not a wonderland.
Later, when Matt travels to a different island to pick up his older daughter from her boarding school, his voiceover informs us that his family is like an archipelago, "all part of the same whole," but "separate and alone and drifting apart." It's as if Payne included his DVD audio commentary in the script.
The strengths of "The Descendants" are its acting and characterization. Most of the film is about Matt's attempt to connect with his two soon-to-be-motherless daughters. Teenage Alexandra (Shailene Woodley, who would be a worthy Supporting Actress nominee) is cynical and disdainful. Younger Scottie (Amara Miller) is becoming increasingly foul-mouthed and eccentric, if still sweet. Joining the Kings as they visit various relatives and friends (including Robert Forster, wonderful as Matt's ill-tempered father-in-law) is Alexandra's goofy friend, Sid (Nick Krause), an affectless, affable stoner.
Like Thomas McCarthy ("Win Win"), Payne (whose filmography also includes the wonderful "Election" and the failed "About Schmidt") is a humanist director. He favors people over showy style, confrontations and conversations over set pieces. "The Descendants" becomes more enjoyable and somehow even looser as its plot tightens (Matt learns his wife was having an affair), and as the hand-holding voiceover disappears. The movie includes many scenes of the family (Sid included) walking along the beach or through a seaside town. They don't appear to be in a hurry, even though an outsider might comment that their world is crashing around them. By the movie's end, the three Kings are just sitting there, on a sofa, watching TV and eating ice cream, and the sheer familiar, reassuring normalcy of the scene is enough to make you laugh and cry.
"The Descendants" is at the Malco Ridgeway Four.
- |
Comments » 0
Be the first to post a comment!
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.