The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011): USA

Reviewed by Byron Potau. Viewed at The Palm Theatre in San Luis Obispo.

The Descendants

There are only a handful of directors whose work I really look forward to, Alexander Payne being one of them, which is why the disappointment in his latest film feels a little worse than it should. Don’t get me wrong, The Descendants is actually very well done. It’s just that it is so terribly ordinary.

Matt King’s wife has just had a water skiing accident and is in the hospital in a coma. Matt (George Clooney) is suddenly thrust into the role of single parent to his two daughters, 10 year old Scottie (Amara Miller) and 17 year old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley). After the doctors tell Matt that his wife won’t recover and they are going to pull the plug on her he must deal with his own grief as well as his daughter’s. To make things more complicated Matt finds out his wife was having an affair and he is determined to talk to him if only to let him know she is going to die. Matt, along with his cousins, are also in the midst of selling a sizable piece of property in Hawaii that was entrusted to them by their ancestors, and is going to be turned into a golf course and resort by the buyers.

Typically, Payne’s films show their strength in the witty screenplays that allow us to find the humor in the character’s pain, and laugh at the real but ridiculous situations they get into. In The Descendants the situations are familiar to Payne’s style, but we don’t get the humor that often goes along with them leaving us with a rather bland story that unfolds without a whole lot of fun along the way.

Payne’s few attempts at humor even feel out of rhythm. In one scene the youngest daughter Scottie flips off the man who drove the boat during her mom’s accident. It is obviously meant to be funny, but feels out of place, inappropriate, and not funny at all. Payne’s timing and ideas for comedy have certainly been better than this in previous films.

Where the film does succeed is Payne’s attempt to take us on a tour of Hawaii, much like he did with Santa Barbara’s wine country in Sideways. From the laid back dress style of the residents to the beautiful beaches and charming local spots all set to Hawaiian style guitar music Payne makes Hawaii another character in the film and probably the most interesting one.

The story also feels a bit simplistic, father and daughters cope with dying wife/mother, and the addition of the preserve the land angle with Matt’s ancestral land being sold for a golf course feels rather hokey and forced.

Clooney’s performance is subdued, almost stifled at times, not allowing him to use his natural charm that his best roles make us of. His narration is also bland and unusually emotionless for Clooney. I’m not sure he was really the right man for this role.

With all of the praise and awards being heaped onto the film, along with Payne’s track record, I expected a lot better. Nonetheless, I have no doubt that he’ll bounce back with his next film which I am eagerly awaiting. In the meantime I’ll just revisit some of the films that made me love his work in the first place.

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Published:
12.20.11 / 1am
Category:
Films