The Descendants stars George Clooney as Matt King, a busy lawyer and trustee of land in Hawaii owned by his family for over a hundred years. Matt is busy working with his cousins to determine the winning bidder for the land, the last piece of virgin property in Hawaii, before they are forced to dissolve the trust in seven years. During the process, Matt’s wife is gravely injured in a boating accident, in a coma and kept alive only by a machine. Matt is suddenly saddled with a 10-year-old daughter he has no connection with, and a 17-year-old daughter who was sent away to boarding school for her issues with drugs and general bad behavior. As Matt gathers his family together, his oldest daughter, Alexandra, reveals some startling news — his wife was having an affair and planning to ask for a divorce, which led to the falling out between her and her mother. Devastated by the news, Matt still has to find a way to tell his youngest, Scottie, that her mother is going to die, as he conspires to track down the guy who was stealing his wife. What Matt learns about his children, his wife, the affair, and himself makes The Descendantsone of the best movies of the year.
It’s been seven years (seven!) since director Alexander Payne’s last feature film, Sideways, a delightful slice of real life, with all the ups and downs that comes with it. The Descendants, which is misleadingly being billed as a raucous comedy, is another honest look at real life but one filled more with tragedy than comedy. That’s not to say that there aren’t any funny moments in the movie, but when you find yourself sniffling through a greater portion of the film than laughing, you’d be hard-pressed to call it a comedy. But that’s what makes the film so satisfying emotinally … amidst all the drama of real life, even at the worst of times, someone can always find something to have a laugh about to lighten the moment, and just as things start to get too heavy in the movie, something funny happens and it never feels forced. The whole movie feels like a documentary, with cameras eavesdropping in on the lives of the King family. Kudos to screenwriters Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash(yes, Greendale Community College’s Dean Pelton!) for so firmly and naturally grounding the film in reality without making it maudlin.
Credit also to goes to the stellar cast. George Clooney has given some amazing performances over the past few years, won some Oscars, and has enough clout in Hollywood to do what he wants to do. This role will almost certainly earn him another Oscar nomination, if not the win. He inhabits the role of George King so completely that you pretty much forget you’re watching the biggest movie star in the world playing this average guy who has more drama on his plate than anyone deserves at one time. It’s a beautifully nuanced and subtle performance, and he surprises at times when you think Matt will have a specific reaction to his situation and then goes in the opposite direction. I can’t say that I’ve seen a better performance by a male actor yet this year.
Also noteworthy are the young actors that play Matt’s daughters. Amara Miller as the youngest daughter is just as natural as Clooney in her acting. You truly believe that this little girl believes her mother is going to wake up and be all better, so she goes about life with positivity and exuberance, and still acts out in moments of frustration like any kid. When they finally have a therapist break the news to her about her mother’s condition (she’s already been disconnected from life support by this point), Payne basically kills the audio so we just see the therapist talking in a sort of slow motion and the expression of Scottie changes as her eyes well up with tears. It’s a truly heartbreaking moment, and Miller pulls it off like a seasoned pro (in her first role!).
Shailene Woodley, most recently seen on the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, also turns in a strong performance that surprises as well. When we first meet Alexandra, she’s drunk and risking expulsion from boarding school, she’s got a lot of anger towards her dad, but when it’s revealed that the problem lies with her mother’s infidelity, she does a 180 and becomes her father’s ally in his quest to find the “other man.” Woodley also reminded me of a younger Natalie Portman, and if she continues to turn in performances like this one, I think we’ll be seeing a lot of her on the big screen.
The rest of the movie is populated by familiar faces from Robert Forster, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard and Judy Greer, but my favorite has to be relative newcomer Nick Krause as Alexandra’s slightly dopey friend Sid. Sid could have been a one-note, stoner character, but with the great writing, some of the funniest dialogue, and his endearing performance, Krause makes Sid a surprisingly intelligent, lovable and goofy guy. He’s one of those people you want to judge badly by a first impression, but you find out there’s a lot more going on deeper under the surface, and his one heart-to-heart scene with Clooney is simply charming.
So, will you laugh during The Descendants? Yes, you will. Will you cry? Many times, but don’t think that makes the movie a downer, because it’s not. It’s actually rather uplifting and hopeful by the end as we see how the King family, who were torn apart just by the normal things in their everyday lives, finds a common ground born out of tragedy. It may not be a total “feel good movie,” but in the end, it may just want to make you tell someone important in your life that you love them.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Nov 23, 2011 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
