The Descendants

Film (2011)
Written by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings
Directed by Alexander Payne

With George Clooney (Matt King), Shailene Woodley (Alexandra King), Amara Miller (Scottie King). Nick Krause (Sid), Beau Bridges (Cousin Hugh), Matthew Lillard (Brian Speer), Judy Greer (Julie Speer), Robert Forster (Scott Thorsen).

Matt King (George Clooney) is a lawyer in Honolulu who is married to Elizabeth, who has just had a boating accident and lies hospitalized in a coma; they have two daughters, Scottie (Amara Miller), 10, and Alex (Shailene Woodley), 17. Matt is the trustee of a hugely valuable piece of land on the island of Kauai that is slated to be sold, imminently, by the family consortium he represents. In the midst of all this, Alex informs Matt that Elizabeth had been having an affair before her accident. He pressures friends into revealing the name of the man with whom she was involved, and, in the unfolding of the plot, discovers unexpected connections.

Sideways (2004), directed by Alexander Payne, with a screenplay by him and Jim Taylor, was a great success. It was inventively written, and beautifully acted and directed. It had an existential tinge, but was full of dark humor. It traded off the laughs and the tragedies with deftness, which Paul Giamatti, its star, embodied perfectly.

About Schmidt (2002), directed by Payne with a screenplay by him and Jim Taylor, was also an adeptly done film, portraying a dark and self-absorbed protagonist, portrayed convincingly by Jack Nicholson, in the process of facing the challenges of affection and generosity. I did not find it quite as effectively done as Sideways, but it was still on balance a successful venture, with generally good writing, direction and action.

And, 14e Arrondissement, the final ten-minute vignette from the film anthology Paris Je T’Aime (2006) written and directed by Payne, was truly wonderful – poignant, touching, hilarious.

George Clooney, who stars here, is the kind of actor who can fill a screen in almost any film; he has the charisma, the looks and the charm that make it worthwhile even if the film is not top notch. But, when it is, as in the recent political drama he wrote, directed and acted in, The Ides of March, he is additionally compelling; and, of course, the abundance of good writing, direction and wonderful actors in that film (Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffmann) helped to make it a persuasive drama.

If one feels weighted down rather than lifted up, even with Clooney in the room, there is a real problem.

I had high expectations for this film, based on early reviews. Is it possible those critics saw a different film, or had Mai Tais beforehand? Given the contrast between that preliminary enthusiasm and what I found to be the quality of the delivered product, I would strongly recommend the film’s publicists to anyone.

I very much wanted to like this film but found problems at almost every turn.

The writing struck me as very limited. Exploration of infidelity while the spouse is in a coma is a unique but strange narrative choice that, in this case, did not for me bear any fruit. And the issue of whether Matt chooses to sell his tract of unadulterated Hawaiian land to developers struck me as an interesting issue, but it is not carried far enough to make it dramatically compelling. I really could not tell what these two things were doing in the script together. Were they supposed to be linked by their conjoined effect on the eponymous descendants? If so, I did not find it convincing.

Whether it is the fault of the direction or the editing, many scenes seem static and labored. There are numerous monotonous repetitions of Matt, Alex, Scottie and Sid (Nick Krause), Alex’s boyfriend, parading down the hospital hallway, emblematic of limitations in the pacing which occur throughout.

Given these limitations, the acting is not bad.

Clooney is as convincing as he can be given the limitations of the script.

Shailene Woodley (Alex) is quite good, though she is given very little textual room in which to develop. When we first meet her she is a troubled teenager on a drinking binge; two scenes later she is playing a semi-adult compatriot in her father’s dilemma. There is so little narrative development to make this believable, and it just does not make sense. Again, given these limitations, Woodley does provide a presence onscreen; I expect her talents will be recognized and better exercised at some point.

Amara Miller (Scottie King) is perfectly adequate as the adorable little kid. Nick Krause (Sid), Alex’s boyfriend, is a decently blunt mixture of annoyance and sympathy. Robert Forster (Scott Thorsen) as the comatose wife’s father is an oddly gruff caricature, a little too intentionally rough to be effective. Matthew Lillard (Brian Speer), as Elizabeth’s lover, is oddly bland and simpleminded. I get the ironic intent, but it just does not play right. Judy Greer (Julie Speer), as his wife, has slightly more to do, exuding a goofily appealing, innocent charm, until, with a slight complication, the script fails even her.

It is nice to see Beau Bridges (Cousin Hugh) as one of Matt’s family consortium members. He has a casual appeal that veers darkly, but, again, he is not given enough script with which to shape his development effectively.

The soundtrack, however, is exceptionally nice, featuring authentic Hawaiian music. And, of course, there are those great views of Kauai.

– BADMan