Like picking up a new book or album from a favorite artist, I instinctively know I'm going to enjoy a new Alexander Payne film regardless of who's in it or what it's is about. I know that the director of such films as Election, About Schmidt and Sideways will take me on a unique, relatable journey filled with flawed, morally challenged characters entrenched in uncomfortable yet enlightening situations.
Based on Kaui Hart Hemming's 2007 novel The Descendants, Payne's fifth feature tells the story of Matt King (George Clooney), an Oahu attorney and land-rich descendant of Hawaiian royalty trying to keep his head above water amid competing family crises. First his wife is in a coma, the product of a terrible boating accident. Second, he and his vast tribe of island-dwelling relatives are haggling over who to sell their valuable patch of beach-front property to.
When the doctors inform Matt that his wife will never wake up and that he should make arrangements for family and friends to say their goodbyes, he enlists the help of his two daugthers - 10-year-old Scotti (Amara Miller) and 17-year-old Alexandra (Shailine Woodley) - to help break the news. Matt hasn't exactly been what you'd call a dedicated and doting father and during one of his clashes with Alexandra it's revealed his wife was having an affair. Matt can't fathom this and sets out with his girls to find and confront the man. In the process he learns a little bit about himself and his children.
As he did with the beckoning open road in About Schmidt and the bucolic Santa Ynez Valley in Sideways, Payne uses the soothing locales of Honolulu and Kauai to temper the chaos enveloping his characters and story. One minute you're on a cliff looking down at a lush beach shot, the next you're witnessing someone about fall into the abyss. Payne's common theme is quite clear: no matter where the paradise, crazy abounds.
Clooney gives one of the finest performances of his career in The Descendants. His Matt King, while successful and respected, is a vulnerable soul, deeply hurt by his wife's betrayal and unsure what awaits he and his daughters after her death. Clooney repeatedly places Matt on the fringe of that aforementioned abyss and gives him the courage to pull himself back in. Definitely an Oscar-worthy portrayal for an actor who just seems to get better with age.
20-year-old Shailine Woodley is excellent as Alexandra, rebellious at first but really the glue that holds Matt together, and Beau Bridges, Nick Crause, Robert Forster, Judy Greer and Matthew Lillard offer wonderful supporting roles that easily make it one of the best ensemble casts of the year.
The Descendants continues Alexander Payne's run of honest, engaging and extremely identifiable dramedys that never fail to tell us a little bit more about ourselves, whether we like or not.
