Like a Michelin-star-rated layer cake baked for todays’ contemporary family, this dramedy is one luscious bite of emotions after another. With lots to love and even more to forgive, The Descendants is this generation’s Terms of Endearment kicked up a notch, yet it somehow mirrors the honesty and complexities of last year’s Oscar nominated The Kids Are Alright.
And while comparing it to great films of yesterday, it feels a bit sprinkled with Sideways which would make sense since it’s directed by Alexander Payne, except now it’s George Clooney in the fuddy Paul Giamatti role. One has to wonder when they were casting if Payne said, “Okay, who’s a nerdy guy who can barely run down a beach. A pathetic father? Ah… George Clooney!”
This is one of the many components that make this film so special. We love Clooney in sexy drama and we love Clooney in screwball. We just didn’t know we could love Clooney as heartfelt everyday man.
A father, Matt King (Clooney) has two young daughters, Alexander (Shailene Woodley) and Scottie (Amara Miller), Matt is forced to step into the full time parent role when his wife is left in a coma from a boating accident. Attempting to navigate that pain, he’s dealing with the neediness of Scottie and the mouthiness of Alexander. All at once the audience – no matter what the age range – has something to connect to. All at once you realize this film and its actors have Oscar written all over them.
Alexander is a rare find of a teenage actress and in her performance. She displays the anger toward her mother that is healthy – think the teen bestselling book, Reviving Ophelia – except she’s being forced to mature instead of grow organically. In other words teen girls hate their mothers because they rival them. But how do you hate a comatose mother?
As a secondary treat, her clueless boyfriend, Sid (Nick Krause)initially seems useless to have around during this personal time of family trauma, until he too helps the group evolve from his own hidden secrets that we didn’t know existed.
The family lives in Hawaii and Clooney’s character is a major property owner of acres of vast land about to be developed. If he sells, it means letting go of a legacy in which he’s a descendant to a history of great family connection. It also means seeing the green mountains he once hiked on with his family turned into a resort. Of course he’s being forced by a well-cast cousin (Beau Bridges) who seems to have his own agenda for the land.
As Clooney comes to terms with his wife’s demise, he also comes to terms with new information that will involve a nearby real estate broker (Matt Lillard) and his victimized wife (Judy Greer). Clooney will learn that divorce isn’t death, death is death…. And there is nothing worse than death when questions can’t be answered for the living who become angry upon discovering revelations they can never have explained. The film moves on a ticking clock of pulling the plug on the mother/wife and the decisions about the land. The various plots all culminate into a beautifully woven tale, especially since Alexander Payne is known for humanizing characters in a way we can all connect to.
Based on the book by Kaui Hart Hemmings the dialog is flawed in a perfect way, the characters allowed a beat between occurrences, the audience participation vicarious as they journey with each changing scene to digest the dribs and drabs of swinging emotions from anger to silliness. No matter what type of lives we have, we’ve all had those odd family moments.
Everything about this film is believable and raw, right down to the Hawaiian music. Four tiaras