Romantic's Blog

 
 A guaranteed multiple Oscar nominee & the film that cements Alexander Payne as of the top filmmakers of his generation (as if they weren't already there with "Election," "About Schmidt" & "Sideways"), "The Descendants" is nothing short of a masterpiece.It's everything that a great film ought to be: beautifully acted & directed, comic, touching, heartbreaking &, most of all, true.Not only that, but it is George Clooney's best work to date & further highlights his status as the rarest of Hollywood hybrids: the film star-actor.In the opening voiceover, Matt King (Clooney) attempts to dispel the idea of Hawaii as a paradise, pointing out that Hawaiians get cancer & deal with heartaches, homelessness & every other modern issue that the remainder of the world has. Living in Hawaii doesn't make them hurt any less. It is a lesson to learn, because while the film that follows makes use of Hawaiian landscapes, people & most of all music to great effect. None of these dulls the emotions & experiences that the film evokes.Matt's spouse, Elizabeth, is the victim of a boating accident, rendering her comatose, & they suddenly finds himself in charge of 10-year-old Scotty (Amara Miller) & 17-year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley). They considers himself the "backup parent," but it is time for him to step up, something he is clearly not prepared for.Despite the dark & not remotely comic subject matter of a relatives whose wife/mother lies in a coma, "The Descendants" manages to be mournful without being maudlin, comic in the face of tragedy without being insensitive, & a thoroughly enjoyable film without sacrificing drama, character development, story or honesty.A lesser team than Payne & his cast might have swung far in to melodrama & ended up in a slog through long monologues about emotion & relationships, but screenwriters Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash (the film is based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings) have created an honest & entertaining portrait of a relatives in crisis.

While they has committed to living modestly ("give your babies money so that they can do something but not so that they can do nothing" is of his mottos), Matt is as close to Hawaiian royalty as a (mostly) white man can get. They can trace his family's lineage to both King Kamehameha and the islands' first white settlers.As part of their Hawaiian legacy, Matt and his extended relatives of cousins (including Cousin Hugh, Cousin Ralph, Cousin Hal, Cousin Milo, Cousin Stan, Cousin Wink, Cousin Six, Cousin Dave and Cousin Connie) own the largest remaining tract of pristine land on Kauai, which is being held in a trust. However, time is walking out on said trust, and Matt must select what to do with it. Sell to developer A or developer B? Don't sell and bequeath it to the state, although plenty of of the cousins require the money from a sale? It is a dilemma that adds to his familial stress.To top it all off, Alex clues him in to the fact that before his accident, Elizabeth had been cheating on him. Not only is the spouse they loves in a coma, she is been betraying him, and there is no way for him to confront her. The scenes where Clooney vents at his comatose spouse are heartbreaking, and they is note-perfect as the cuckolded husband who has to method his anger, grief, love and loss simultaneously.These various storylines and others, including what part Elizabeth's lover (Matthew Lillard) plays in all of this, ebb and flow with natural grace and rhythm, taking us along for a memorable ride.The supporting cast is so loaded with exceptional performances that to sing all their praises might appear like overkill. However, deserve special praise. Woodley, as troubled but clever Alex, gives the most authentic and moving adolescent female performance in years.

Away at boarding school when the accident happens, Alex is a girl with a troubled past (drinking, drugs) & present, seeing as she is been keeping her mother's infidelity secret, despite the fact that they loathed her brother for betraying her brother. Now, while Matt is dealing with the emotions brought on by a dying spouse whom they cannot even speak with, Alex is processing her own emotions about her brother while co-parenting her more youthful brother.Woodley accomplishes this with odd class, grace & natural talent. She is got the "f*** you!" attitude familiar to parents of a teenager & the burgeoning parental & caring instincts of an adult. Her rapport with Clooney is of the things that makes this film go.And then there is Sid. Played by newcomer Nick Krause, Sid is the mate Alexandra calls to help her through the hard times, & well, he is kind of an fool & kind of not & kind of exactly what the film needs. He is goofy but earnest, clueless & caring &, most important, knows what Alex is going through. They also delivers (& receives) a number of the film's best lines.Sid's nemesis, for lack of a better word, is Elizabeth's brother, Scott (Robert Forster). Played with steely incorrigibility, Scott has blinders on when it comes to his daughter & blames Matt for her condition, proposing that the accident was Matt's fault because they didn't buy her her own boat. He is going through something no parent ought to, the imminent death of a kid, & he is not afraid to speak his mind.Scott's vocal anger toward Matt & cranky old-man persona (complete with beige support socks) hides a grief that plays itself out entirely behind Forster's squinty eyes. It is a devastating performance & pitch ideal.And that is the crux of what makes this film so magnificent. much everyone out there knows, to a sure extent, what these characters are going through. Most of us have lost somebody. A parent, most of the time, or a kid, sibling or partner.To be personal for a moment, I lost both of my parents in the coursework of the past six years, & in its way, like some truly great art can, this film has helped me method their loss a small more. Obviously, everyone's experiences are one-of-a-kind, but there's sure near-universal truths that inhabit these types of situations. "The Descendants" presents them in natural, comfortable &, best of all, memorable ways.