A heavy drama told with a light touch, The Descendants marks career best work from writer/director Alexander Payne in his exploration of how a bombardment of ethical dilemmas bring an estranged family closer.
With his last three releases – The Descendants, Sideways and About Schmidt – Payne has mastered the art of stories about middle aged men facing crisis in their lives. His latest The Descendants focuses on Matt King (George Clooney), a successful lawyer and land baron in his home of Hawaii.
When his wife falls into a coma after a boating accident, Matt and his two daughters - potty mouthed Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and impressionable Scottie (Amara Miller) - prepare for the end while coming closer together.
Ethical dilemmas come quick and fast. The first is towards a legal document which states in case such a tragedy should befall, life support is to be removed. Second is the revelation that Matt’s wife was in the throes of an affair. Finally, Matt has to decide whether to sell of the vast acres of prime Hawaiian real estate handed down to him after generations of ownership by his family.
Material like this could be presented in doomy and bulky fashion, but the strength of Payne’s writing and direction is his ability to evoke comedy from the most dramatic of circumstances, mesh both elements together and produce a film both light and heavy, without sacrificing one iota of emotion. The Descendants is Payne’s best example of his shtick yet.
Clooney suits the material very well. His latest in a long string of great performances (Up in the Air, The American), Clooney balances the line between comedy and drama in his portrayal of a man who’s trying to re-establish his position in a family losing ground to life’s many obstacles. Even his deliverance of narration (usually a lazy novelty which Payne uses brilliantly) is filled with twangs of guilt, sadness and happiness.
Supporting performances from young actors Shailee Woodley and Amara Milelr impress in their emotional maturity, and Robert Forster makes an impact as an angry and bitter father who has to say goodbye to his “little girl”.
The Descendants is a film that’s honest in its emotions. It effectively presents the consequences of adultery, the sadness in death and the love which family always have for one another, even when they hate what they’ve done.
It’s been 7 years since Alexander Payne last made a feature film. The Descendants is well worth the wait. |