The Descendants

Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Matthew Lillard and Beau Bridges
Releasing in cinemas: 12 January 2012
Rated: M

Few in the film industry would dispute the fact that George Clooney has the Midas touch. Whatever the Hollywood star does, whether as an actor or a director, inevitably tends to strike gold at the box office. His latest film, The Descendants, is no different. There’s already talk of an Oscar for the 50-year-old’s performance, and the film has been nominated for no less than five Golden Globes including Best Picture and Best Director. Clooney is also nominated in the Best Director and Best Screenplay categories for The Ides of March. I rest my case.
 
Not that anyone would begrudge Clooney his success. It’s not just that he’s an incredibly nice guy but you have to admire his desire to take chances in his career and continually mix up the roles rather than play it safe as so many do. The Descendants is one such role.
 
The film tells the story on one Matt King (Clooney) a well-off lawyer in Hawaii who seemingly has it all.  Married with two daughters and living in a tropical paradise, his biggest dilemma is whether to sell a prime stretch of coastal land that he and a large group of his relatives own.   The group stands to make a bundle of money from the sale if Matt, in his capacity as trustee, agrees to sign off on the deal. 
 
When a freak boating accident leaves his wife lying comatose in a hospital bed, the last thing Matt is thinking about is the property deal.  He struggles to keep it together for his daughters, 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller) and 17-year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley from The Secret Life of the American Teenager).  If he didn’t have enough to deal with, the precocious Alexandra informs him that mum had been having an affair at the time of her accident. Matt is devastated by the news. He had no idea and he struggles emotionally to cope with grief as well as feelings of betrayal and anger. He decides to track down and confront his wife’s lover - a successful real estate agent called Brian Speer (played by a very grown up Matthew Lillard) – partly in the hope of finding some sort of closure before his wife’s life support is switched off. He takes his daughters with him and along the way learns how to be a parent again because, as he puts it himself, he’s simply been “the backup parent, the understudy” up until now. Needless to say, the confrontation doesn’t go exactly as planned.
 
Alexander Payne is probably best known for creating biting black comedies like Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002) and Sideways (2004).   The Descendants marks something of a change for the American director in that it’s not as dark or as satirical as his earlier films. Having said that it does have Payne’s imprint all over it, meaning it’s excruciatingly frank and examines the meaning of family, love, grief and betrayal with unflinching honesty. For example there’s one scene in which we see Clooney railing at his wife while she lies unconscious in hospital.   It’s uncomfortable to watch and not the sort of thing you would typically see in a Hollywood film.  But what makes it’s so memorable is the authenticity of the moment.
 
Payne’s strength lies in his ability to dissect human nature and he does it with gusto. He digs deep and often leaves the audience squirming with discomfort while laughing uncontrollably at his flawed but ultimately good-hearted characters and the shenanigans they get up to.  It’s what makes his dramas so tragically funny. What’s different here is that while The Descendants is humourous in places, it’s not the laugh-out-loud fest we’ve come to expect from Payne. That’s not to say it’s any less entertaining or engaging it’s just a different brand of humour.
 
Adapted from the novel by Kaui Hart Hemming, Clooney does an exemplary job playing the bruised, clueless husband.  It’s an incredibly subtle performance and Clooney juggles the gamut of emotions nimbly often relying only on his impressively expressive face.  It’s also an excruciatingly vulnerable performance and it’s no surprise really that he’s being touted for an Oscar.
 
But this is an ensemble piece and Clooney is not the only one who shines. There’s a notable performance from Nick Krause who plays Alexandra’s dopey stoner boyfriend but who is clearly smarter than he makes out to be. Beau Bridges steals several scenes effortlessly playing one of Matt’s greedy relatives. Woodley is also terrific and demonstrates a range here that the hit TV show denies her.
 
If there is a negative in the film it’s that the pace lulls a bit in places but then Payne’s narratives often ramble along rather than make a mad dash to the finish line. This is one of those films that require you to just sit back and let it unfold in its own time. If you do that, you won’t be disappointed. 

Gaynor Flynn