Alexander Payne has developed a knack for capturing deep, intrinsic truths about people through the use of very broad caricatures. Payne’s previous films such as Election and About Schmidt resonated due to a combination of relatable issues and broad, encompassing portraits of sad and lonely people. In The Descendants, Payne’s latest film about a man facing his wife’s imminent death, the director delivers a movie that is funny and deeply touching yet lacks that intrinsic familiarity that his previous works so effortlessly oozed.
The Descendants is as messy a film as the life of its protagonist — full of conflicting plot tangents all butting against each other for time and attention. All the while, beautiful Hawaiian scenery laps up against the camera frame and — along with an accompanying island soundtrack — helps soothe away the intensity of the film’s frantic pace. The end result is a movie that simultaneously feels claustrophobic and sprawling, emotionally distant and resonant all at once.
George Clooney stars as Matt King, a lifelong Hawaii native and heir to a large plot of ancestral land. This land proves to be a headache and a half when the dissolution of the land trust pushes Matt and his legion of cousins to discuss an impending need to sell the land. Of course, Matt has bigger items on his mind — namely the fact that his wife is lying in a coma after a boating accident and her will specifically states that her plug be pulled.
As Matt King, Clooney gives a great, understated performance. This is not a flashy role and even the most emotionally confrontational of scenes are played with a sense of restraint. The low-key performance by Clooney does the job and moves the story forward with smooth sailing and plenty of good will but it feels like something is missing. Clooney’s performance is not one of those memorable Alexander Payne archetypes. Matt King is defined by his grief, confusion and desperate desire to connect with his two daughters. As a character, that’s more than enough to ask for under normal circumstances but in the case of an Alexander Payne film — in which he returns to his use of exposition-heavy narration — the defining lack of a deeper cut character in Matt King makes some of the early scenes a bit hard to dig through. There’s nothing meaty in Clooney’s performance to latch on to and as Payne leisurely sets up the various plot points of his film, the audience’s patience is tested.
Shailene Woodley plays Matt’s oldest daughter, Alexandra. Fiery tempered and a mess of conflicting emotions, it’s Alexandra that tells Matt that his wife was cheating on him before her accident. It’s also Alexandra that offers the best hope that Matt (and the film) has of keeping it all together. Her force of will and rich characterization grounds the movie in a way that Clooney’s role just doesn’t seem capable of doing. Woodley may be a young actor but she more than shows a capability of carrying a film. If it’s Clooney’s charisma that gives the film its soul, it’s Woodley’s performance that gives that soul its fire.
Stealing the show in almost every scene he is in is Nick Krause as Sid, Alexandra’s boyfriend. An obnoxious teen devoid of common sense but surprisingly capable of tenderness, Sid is used as the go to guy for bringing in the laughs — of which The Descendants has plenty of. Alexander Payne has not forgotten how to meld drama with humor to great effect and his latest film ups the ante by switching on a dime between deep sorrow and deeper belly laughs.
Matt King is in the middle of a mess. Family affairs are intertwined with his grief over his wife’s death and all of those emotions are fighting for attention with the anger and jealousy discovered alongside the news of his wife’s infidelity. The resolution for dealing with those mixed emotions, King decides, will be found by confronting his wife’s boyfriend (played by a very grown looking Matthew Lillard). Unfortunately, this just further tangles up every frayed thread hanging from Matt’s life.
The film plot structure mirrors the cacophony of Matt’s journey. Plot threads are just as tangled and weathered as the action items competing for Matt’s attention. The result is a bit jarring at first — long heavy bouts of exposition steamrolled into beautifully lethargic cinematography — but in the end, The Descendants is a fine film. It’s just not at the level you might expect an Alexander Payne film to be at. It’s good but when it comes to the next film from the director of Election and About Schmidt, one hopes for greatness.
Director: Alexander Payne
Notable Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer and Beau Bridges
Writer(s): Nat Faxon, Jim Rash and Alexanader Payne from the book “The Descendants” by Kaui Hart Hemmings
