The Descendants (2011)
Certified: 14
Running time: 115 minutes
Directed by: Alexander Payne
Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Matthew Lillard, Robert Forster
KRS release
George Clooney plays the role of Matt King a hugely successful real estate lawyer who has a long family line history in Hawaii.
He is also the trustee of a huge plot of land that is still unspoiled and he is being hounded by his many relatives, including cousin Hugh (Beau Bridges), to sell it at once to a developer. But Matt ispreoccupied with other matters.
First off, his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) has been through a boating accident and now lies in a coma, meaning that Matt must take care of his 10-year-old daughter Scottie (Amara Miller). And Scottie seems intent on causing trouble much like her 17-year-old sister Alexandra (Shailene Woodley).
Matt decides to bring Alexandra home from the other island where she attends school. This decision is taken in the light of the medical staff having decided to follow his wife’s medical directive to take her off life support.
Matt still has to find a way to tell Scottie about this. So, long with his children and Alexandra’s unusual friend Sid (Nick Krause), he goes to inform Elizabeth’s parents: Scott (Robert Forster) and Alice (Barbara L. Southern), a dementia sufferer.
Matt is torn between the land sale issue, his wife’s pending death, the news of his wife’s affair and building a relationship with his two children.
Alexander Payne’s movies (Election, About Schmidt, Sideways) have always had a perchance for the right mix of characters, drama and dark humour. This is once again well handled as the director walks this balancing tightrope so well. Visually, the film complements the story as Mr Payne makes full use of the Hawaiian locations. With the premise of the huge plot of land in question, Hawaii is not just a setting but also a character in its own right.
The way the family has to decide upon the future of this land is a decisive factor in the film’s theme and emphasises the way family and land connect to each other.
The film would not have succeeded without George Clooneys’s restrained and quietly majestic performance. He presents himself with a tinge of grace, mixed with the subtle joy of a man waking up to a new reality and discovering the life he was missing.
Under the sure directorial reins of Alexander Payne the cast is game enough to swing from dry humour to real, touching sadness and life-changing decisions.
This is the strength of the film as you get the sense that these are characters that could actually exist away from the cinema screen.
The Descendants is not a melodrama, or about Hollywood glossiness. It’s a depiction of a family, bearing all in its dysfunctional existence and has a compelling quality that makes us sit still and watch.
The Descendants is all about not having to beg or force anything from its audience. It simply lures us in.