(Hey, maybe I can get a cut of that land trust by saying I‘m King Kamehameha‘s half-Haoli bastard great-great-great-great-grandson - could work….)
CAST: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause, Patricia Hastie, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Matthew Lillard, Judy Greer, Michael Ontkean.
DIRECTOR: Alexander Payne
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and some strong reasons to wish you were descended from Hawaiian royalty - straight ahead…
IT’S LIKE THIS: Workaholic Honolulu attorney Matt King (George Clooney) is having a rough few months: (1) wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) had a boating accident and is now in a deep coma, which forces him to take time off from work and care for his two daughters whom he barely knows: (2) 10-year old daughter Scottie (Amara Miller), who is an elementary school nightmare who likes to terrorize her classmates with obscene text messages; and (3) 17-year-old daughter Alex (Shailene Woodley), who is a recovering drug addict hanging out with a stoner dork named Sid (Nick Krause), so it’s safe to say there’s a relapse in her future. Oh, and just because all that isn’t enough to turn his hair gray (just look at his pictures), Matt also has to (4) deal with his cousins over the sale of 25,000 acres of prized land on Kauai that they all inherited from their Royal Hawaiian (not the airline) ancestors - because Matt‘s the trustee. They’re thisclose to finalizing a sale that will make all of them rich. Well, richer…. So, naturally, the ass-pucker factor is kind of stratospheric.
Oh, but I forgot the real kicker: during yet another argument, Alex blurts out to Matt that (5) Elizabeth was fucking someone else before her accident. This, naturally, turns Matt’s world upside down even more. Which technically means his world has, lately, been doing more spinning and twirling than the chuckleheads on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. And you thought that rich people who live in Hawaii had nothing to worry about besides not wearing enough sunblock. Silly, silly bastards…
THE DUDE (OR DUDETTE) MOST LIKELY TO SAVE THE DAY: Matt himself, with a nice solid assist from Alex. These two make a great team.
EYE CANDY MOST LIKELY TO FIRE UP A WOODY: George Clooney, by a mile. We should all look that great with silver hair…
MOST INTENTIONALLY FUNNY/SWEET SCENE: Matt tracking down Elizabeth’s secret boyfriend Bryan (Matthew Lillard) by using the super-duper high-tech technique of… hiding behind a bush. And also Matt, Alex, and Scottie surveying their land on Kauai. Lucky jerks…
MOST UNINTENTIONALLY FUNNY/SWEET SCENE: Matt, Alex, Scottie, and Sid traveling to Kauai as “family” - to track down that fucker who was screwing Mom before she went into the coma.
HOTTEST SCENE: Any time Matt looks like he’s about to cry. Come here, baby, let me make it all better…
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: Will Matt and his family surmount their numerous problems? Will Elizabeth ever wake up from her coma? Will Scottie finally stop behaving like a hooligan and act like a normal ten-year-old girl? Will Alex stop giving her dad a hard time and start cooperating with him? Will they confront Bryan about his affair with Elizabeth? If so, what will happen? And what about the sale of all that land? Will Matt go through with it and become even wealthier - or will he honor his duty to his ancestors and continue to safeguard and protect the land? Will the King family make it through this difficult time? Will they learn the value of family? Time will tell. One thing I know for sure: if I lived in Hawaii permanently, I know who I’d be spending most of my time with:
The natives…
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH “THE DESCENDANTS”: If you like quirky, funny, beautiful, and intelligent comedies about family and friendship - all given a fresh setting in Hawaii. And if you are a fan of George Clooney and/or director Alexander Payne (ABOUT SCHMIDT, SIDEWAYS) - who deliver their most accomplished work here. And if you are fan of the book by Kaui Hart Hemmings that it’s based on.
WHY YOU MAY NOT ENJOY “THE DESCENDANTS”: If none of the above apply to you, you should beat a path to THE DEVIL INSIDE or CONTRABAND instead.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: I have to admit that the only other film by talented director Alexander Payne I’ve seen is SIDEWAYS (review # 119), the wine country road trip/buddy movie starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church as Miles and Jack - best friends on one last hurrah before Jack gets married. While I like that film and found it to be a solidly good ride with a few truly beautiful moments (such as Miles’ speech about the beauty of Pinot Noir to Maya, Virgina Madsen’s character), I also thought it was just a bit overrated considering all the glowing reviews heaped on it.
It further didn’t help that Miles and Jack start out very unlikable - the former was a whiny pessimist and the other was a thoughtless jerk. Of course, they do change somewhat towards the third act of the film (especially Miles), but they do try your goodwill and patience during the first half of the movie. And I was afraid that Payne’s latest film would feature the same problem: a lead character that is difficult to sympathize with.
Fortunately, in THE DESCENDANTS, we have a much more likable lead character in Matt King. Unlike Miles who basically goes around whining and feeling sorry for himself excessively, Matt keeps his emotions to himself and only rarely vents to his daughters. He prefers to basically keep a stiff upper lip and soldier on through the tough situation he and his daughters find themselves in. And despite the fact that he is quite rich, Matt doesn’t flash it around - and is instead very humble and low-key.
It also helps considerably that George Clooney manages the neat trick of making Matt’s stoicism very expressive, with flashes of vulnerability peeking beneath his forced calm. He doesn’t make the mistake of making it look like Matt is not perturbed about what is happening around him - as a less talented and less expressive actor could’ve mistakenly done. Basically, Clooney turns him into a man of cool reason (he’s a lawyer, after all), who is clearly fighting to remain reasonable. This has the effect of evoking our concern and interest.
Clooney does a terrific job of charting Matt’s transformation from the workaholic, barely-present father he was before Elizabeth’s accident, to the fumbling, bewildered forced single parent to two feisty daughters he suddenly becomes, and eventually to the confident, authoritative, but also magnanimous authority figure he ends up being. Clooney won the Best Actor Award for Drama at the Golden Globes last night, and I will be very surprised if he doesn’t win his second Oscar at the Academy Awards come end of February. He is so good as Matt King that you actually forget he’s playing a part - essentially, Clooney disappears into the role. As any actor worth his salt (and then some) should do. It’s a wonderful performance that deserves to be recognized.
Shailene Woodley as Alex is just as terrific as Clooney. They have a nice rapport and are very believable as father and daughter. The best thing about THE DESCENDANTS is watching Alex slowly lower her guard (and stingers) and slowly realize the pain behind Matt’s composed façade. There’s a terrific shot in their car where the defeated Matt sits hunkered down in the driver’s seat, still shell-shocked by the news of Elizabeth’s infidelity. Then Alex leans forward and seems to almost absorb his sadness. With one sentence (“I know where he lives”), she starts to bridge the gap that will eventually re-connect them.
Indeed, the biggest pleasure of THE DESCENDANTS is watching Alex become Matt’s fiercest ally. Whether defending him from their bullying grandfather (Elizabeth’s father) or helping him track down her mother’s lover, Alex’s rekindled loyalty to her dad - and his renewed appreciation for her and her sister - is this movie’s biggest reward. If I hadn’t already promised to deliver this review, I would’ve saved it for the Valentine’s Day line-up as a sterling example of a Father-Daughter love story. This movie is quietly amazing - and its mainly because of Clooney and Woodley.
Another interesting angle of the film is the whole “land trust” issue. The secondary conflict facing Matt is the seemingly no-brainer decision to cash in tremendously on the land he and his cousins inherited from their Hawaiian royalty ancestors. While no one would blame him for going through with the sale, Matt eventually understands that family loyalty extends back to our forebears - and our responsibility to safe guard their legacy, even if it means losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars. Suffice it to say, this sub-plot has a resolution that’s just as satisfying as the main plotline. Sometimes, doing the right thing isn’t easy - but it still must be done.
The supporting cast shines just as brightly as Clooney and Woodley. Amara Miller is a goofy, quirky delight as Scottie, and Nick Krause is an unexpected source of comfort for the family as Sid, the smarter-than-he-looks stoner pal of Alex’s who is brutally honest and says the wrong thing at the wrong time. But when he does say the right thing at the right time, he is amazing. Two scenes with Sid stand out as winners: (1) the nice talk that he and Matt have late at night while the girls are sleeping, wherein Matt discovers just how truly smart and sensitive this seemingly dumb kid is; and (2) the late scene at the hospital where Sid (and Alex) stand up to defend Matt from his tyrannical father-in-law. Krause does a terrific job of showing all of Sid’s different colors. His memorable work here, along with Woodley and Miller’s, signals greater things ahead for these young performers.
Veteran performers Robert Forster, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard, Judy Greer, and Michael Ontkean are sharp and vivid in their roles, but THE DESCENDANTS truly belongs to the main quartet of Matt, Alex, Scottie, and Sid - who end up forming an impromptu family of their own as they navigate their way through the stormy events around them. The final shot is a perfect way to visually end their journey - which, along with the film’s beautiful and evocative poster, clearly illustrates the double meaning behind the title: “The Descendants” doesn’t only refer to Matt, his cousins, and their responsibility to protect the land bequeathed to them by their ancestors, but also Matt’s responsibility to his kids to be an active, positive force in their lives. Because they are his “descendants”. The same way we are responsible to our children, whether they be sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, grandkids, or younger siblings,
Like THE WAY, this film is now one of my favorites. In comparison, SIDEWAYS is almost a non-event.
