Alexander Payne has a knack for spinning tales about middle age malaise and disillusionment. His high school comedy, Election, followed Matthew Broderick as a failed variation of Ferris Bueller desperately trying to sabotage the campaign efforts of Type A personality Tracy Flick (played by Reese Witherspoon). In Sideways, Payne followed Paul Giamatti as a stagnant writer confronting his own misery and loneliness on a trip through wine country with his adulterous best friend. Payne pushed these themes even further with what may be his best work yet in About Schmidt, he showed that things don't get any easier during the twilight years. And they don't get better in the idyllic island of Hawaii, according to The Descendants, Payne's newest film based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings and adapted by Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash, who plays Dean Pelton on NBC's Community.
George Clooney stars as the appropriately named Matt King, a lawyer whose family is descended from King Kamehameha and the first white settlers in the fiftieth state. They own one of the largest tracts of unspoiled land in Hawaii and Matt must ultimately decide on its fate. Most of his cousins (headed up by Beau Bridges) are pushing for a lucrative deal with a local developer while others prefer not to sell. This sandy beach property is the least of Matt's problems.
His wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), has been left in a vegetative coma following a tragic water skiing accident. The doctors inform Matt that Elizabeth will not improve and they must honor her living will by removing her from life support. A self-described "back-up parent," Matt is forced to deal with two daughters he has absolutely no way of connecting with. His youngest, Scottie (Amara Miller), has eccentric tendencies and constantly curses. His eldest, Alexandra (Shailene Woodley), is a defiant teenager sent off to boarding school to curb her wild ways. Alexandra confesses to her oblivious father that mom was cheating on him. A road trip to inform family and friends about Elizabeth's impending death becomes a cathartic search as Matt and Alexandra look to confront her lover, a real estate agent named Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard).
The Descendants depicts a different side of Hawaii from the picturesque tourist traps seen on Hawaii Five-0. Payne prefers sterile office buildings and languid suburban neighborhoods to white sands and tiki torches. He sets the mood in the opening voice-over narration in which George Clooney declares, "Paradise can go fuck itself." Just as he defies our expectations of the locales, Payne also defies our expectations of certain characters and standard situations. Tagging along with the King family is Alexandra's friend, Sid (Nick Krause), a mish-mash of every stoner and sun-baked surfer stereotype imaginable. Yet, he turns out to not be as dumb as everyone thinks and shares a rather profound moment with Matt.
As the lead character, Clooney carries a heavy amount of baggage. He is George Clooney, after all. He can't play a sad sack that way Paul Giamatti or Philip Seymour Hoffman can, but Clooney brings an aura of weariness to the role that recalls his performance in Up in the Air. It's unfortunate that his character is so underwritten and overshadowed by the supporting characters. Clooney's young co-stars, Shailene Woodley (from ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager) and Amara Miller are both good while the usually comedic Judy Greer gets to stretch her dramatic muscles as Brian's oblivious wife. But, it is Robert Forster who commands the film as Matt's father-in-law, an ornery old timer, who lambastes Matt and Alexandra while overlooking (either knowingly or unknowingly) his own daughter's infidelity.
The weakest element of The Descendants is the superfluous narration that bogs down the first act and trails off as the movie progresses. The narration serves purely to explain emotions and subplots that are exceedingly apparent to the audience.
Visually, The Descendants represents a high point for Alexander Payne as a director. It's undoubtedly his best looking and most maturely handled work as a filmmaker. Payne does his usual blend of tear jerking drama, low-key humor and broadly played comedy. Yet, The Descendants stands as one of Payne's lesser pictures, one that isn't nearly as compelling as Election, About Schmidt or Sideways. It's a middle of the road crowd pleaser sure to impress the easily wowed awards voters.
Rating: ** ½ (*****)
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