Only Oscar-winning writer-director Alexander Payne (Sideways) would think to cast the famously handsome George Clooney as a dishevelled dad in his outstanding adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings's tragicomic novel. Clooney dials down the glamour to play Matt King, a Hawaii real-estate attorney with a propensity for unflattering shirts and ill-fitting trousers. When Matt's wife, Elizabeth, ends up in a coma after a water-skiing accident, Matt must learn to balance the parenting of his resentful daughters, Scottie (Amara Miller) and Alexandra (Shailene Woodley, The Secret... Life of the American Teenager), with the sale of a pristine plot of Kauai land that stands to make the King cousins, including scruffy Hugh (Beau Bridges), a fortune. As Elizabeth's condition worsens, Matt contacts friends and relatives, like her fiercely protective father (Robert Forster), so that they'll have the chance to say goodbye. In the process, he finds out she was having an affair with realtor Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard, effectively cast against type), so he and the girls, including Alex's hilariously mellow friend, Sid (Nick Krause), go on an island-hopping trip, ostensibly to add Brian to the mix, but Matt really wants to find out what his wife saw in the guy. His journey from naiveté to knowledge brings out Clooney's soulful side, creating a believably flawed, deeply sympathetic figure. If Payne leans too heavily on the slack-key soundtrack, his love for his characters, including Judy Greer as Matt's female counterpart, results in his most emotionally satisfying movie to date. --Kathleen C. Fennessy [show more]
Really good film, George Clooney was believable as a lawyer and father, great story lines and a good, watchable hanky holding film. highly recommended
Although it would go on to pick up a Golden Globe and an Academy Award amidst a host of other nominations, Alexander Payne's 2011 The Descendants is often conspicuously absent in discussions of the year's best films, largely thanks to the arrival of a certain black-and-white affair that, along with Martin Scorsese's Hugo, would proceed to dominate awards season and push Payne's Hawaiian comedy-drama out of the spotlight entirely.
This is a great shame as Payne's follow-up to 2004's marvellous Sideways is equally brilliant.
It tells the story of a middle aged man named Matt King (George Clooney) whose seemingly paradisiacal life upon the island of Hawaii has just fallen to pieces.
The opening scene depicts the accident that will leave his wife in a coma, forcing Matt to play the parenting role that his busy work life has enabled him to avoid for the past 20 years. He has no idea what to do with his rambunctious younger daughter and, after retrieving her older sister Alex from college in an attempt to regain control over his quickly disintegrating family life, she informs him that his wife had been having an affair. As he tries to come to terms with his wife's infidelity, his younger daughter's misbehaviour and his older daughter's idiotic boyfriend, Matt is also supposed to be making a crucial decision on behalf of his extended family regarding the potential sale of the final piece of their ancestors' land, leaving him squarely in the middle of a fierce battle of wills between the eco-friendly half of his family who are determined to see its natural beauty protected and his more economic-minded cousins who would rather cash it in for all its worth.
It's a complex story built from the tangled threads that make up everyday life as the difficulties of raising a family, sustaining a marriage and running a business become messily entwined. His wife's accident sets the plot in motion by forcing Matt to either attempt to deal with all of them simultaneously or to untangle them by deciding which ones are truly important.
As the various plots are interwoven, a myriad of complex moral dilemmas are created: Matt is filled with rage by the knowledge of his wife's betrayal but unable to confront her. Is it fair for him to hate her whilst she lies in a coma? Will confronting her lover solve anything or just run the risk destroying another family?
When a revelation at the end unearths a connection between his family and business troubles, the film's morality shifts to an even deeper shade of grey.
There are few filmmakers that could comfortably handle a story of such moral and structural complexities but Payne takes to the task with aplomb, crafting a film that is both gently moving and intellectually engaging as we're left wondering how we would respond in Matt's place.
No doubt most of us would also find ourselves trying just to keep our head above water.
The ease with which Matt gains the audience's sympathy is largely the result of an astonishing performance from megastar George Clooney. Despite having been perhaps the biggest name in Hollywood for over a decade, Clooney has managed to break entirely new ground in this role as an ageing everyman simply trying to cope with the demands of family life. His irrepressible likeability is, of course, still present and correct but he sheds the suave composure of his previous roles, adorning instead the wearied air of a man worn out by the demands of everyday life, struggling clumsily to hold his family together.
Clooney's supporting cast is made up of an intriguing mix of fresh faces and old hands: Matt's daughters are played by newcomers Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller, both of whom are exceptional in difficult roles, hitting both the lighter comedic notes and darker dramatic ones with apparent ease.
Veterans Beau Bridges and Robert Forster round out the cast as Matt's down-on-his luck cousin, Hugh and cantankerous father-in-law, Scott. The former is intent upon seeing Matt cash in the family land for all its worth, having frittered away the rest of his own inheritance years before whilst the latter is distraught at his beloved daughter's accident, insisting that Matt was to blame.
Together, they add two equally sympathisable if entirely less likeable characters to the mix and further complicate Matt's moral dilemmas.
The unsung star of the film, though, is wonderfully named cinematographer Phedon Papamichael who captures perfectly the sumptuous beauty of Hawaii. Although Matt spends much of the film denying Hawaii's reputation as an idyllic island getaway, Papamichael's shots of glittering oceans, golden beaches and pristine hillsides make it almost impossible to believe him and will surely have every viewer rooting for the tree-hugging Kings' push to protect such a gorgeous landscape.
In a film filled with melancholy, the notion of it being transformed into hotels and golf courses is perhaps the darkest note.
Overall, The Descendants is a delightful film from an exceptionally talented Director at the height of his powers. As a vehicle for Clooney, it gives one of the most famous men on the planet a chance to totally re-invent himself: the result is one of the defining performances of his career.
It's a funny, clever and gently moving comedy-drama with one of the single most beautiful backdrops in recent cinematic history.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. With his wife Elizabeth on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron Matt King (Clooney), takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront the young real estate broker (Lillard) who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune. Actors George Clooney, Judy Greer, Shailene Woodley, Matthew Lillard, Beau Bridges, Rob Huebel, Robert Forster, Michael Ontkean, Mary Birdsong, Sonya Balmores, Matt Corboy, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Scott Michael Morgan & Milt Kogan Director Alexander Payne Certificate 15 years and over Year 2011 Languages English
Comedy drama from director Alexander Payne starring George Clooney as a lawyer forced to rethink his approach to life after his wife is hospitalised following a serious accident. As trustee for a large estate, Matt King (Clooney) has had a fairly easy life to date. Living in the tropical island of Hawaii, with his financial future secure, King has grown complacent to an extent that is only brought home to him when a boating accident sends his wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), into a coma. Left in sole charge of the daughters he has largely neglected, Scottie (Amara Miller) and Alex (Shailene Woodley), Matt is called to face his responsibilities as an adult. However, when he discovers that Elizabeth had been having an affair in the months leading up to the accident, a test of his newfound emotional maturity is presented. Matt sets out to confront Elizabeth's lover and to find out the truth underlying the affair. The film won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
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