The Descendants, starring George Clooney

Hard to believe it's been seven years since Alexander Payne gave us his great wine tasting comedy, Sideways. In the time since, he's remained mostly in the background, popping up occasionally to produce films that in some way match his preference for idiosyncratic adult comedies, such as The Savages and this year's Cedar Rapids. It's good to see that the years haven't dulled his keen eye for examining the little details that define a person's life. His ability to make comedy or tragedy out of these very human moments are his gift, and with The Descendants he has never put it to greater use.

Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, the plot of The Descendants will often sound like that of some silly soap opera or telenovella. It certainly has it's fair share of quirk and remarkable circumstance, but one of the things that makes it work so well is that very rarely do you feel the writers stretching for a laugh. The humor comes from emotion, and the reactions to it by the characters, so natural that we could see ourselves acting in exactly the same way.

George Clooney, looking more like the middle aged man he is than ever before on screen, is Matt King, the head of a large Hawaiian family who's lineage dates back to the 19th century and the last monarchs of the island. A distant descendant of King Kamehameha by way of marriage, Matt bond to his Hawaiian paradise is more than spiritual, but also legal. His family owns a huge swath of pristine, untouched land on the island, and due to some convoluted circumstances, they must sell it in a move that promises to make them all even wealthier than they already are. 

Matt's struggles over his responsibility to his birthright and to his extended family are integral to the story, but nothing compared to his other troubles. A terrible boating accident has left his energetic wife, Elizabeth, in a coma, and he learns pretty early on that there's no hope of recovery. Always obsessed with work, Matt refers to himself as the "back-up parent", and has no idea how to approach his two daughters: 10 year old Scottie, and 17 year old Alexandra. Alexandra is the family rebel, sent away to a boarding school/rehab facility to break her personal demons. Her last words with her mom were said in rage, the result of a secret Matt's totally unaware of.


In one of the film's many gripping, uncomfortable moments, Matt learns his wife had been cheating on him at the time of her accident. It's not important who the affair was with, but instead the snake pit of emotions it puts Matt through as he fights back his justifiable rage to spare his youngest daughter. At the same time, he's consumed by the need to know, and he bonds with Alexandra over a scheme to uncover the man's whereabouts. But then what? Do they ruin his life? Do they brawl in the sands of the beach? 


While there are certainly moments that border on depressing, Payne finds humor in the unlikeliest of places. Such as Matt's awkward scramble in his flip flops down the street after learning of his wife's infidelity. Or in his daughter's idiot boyfriend, Sid(Nick Krause), saying all the wrong things at the most inappropriate times and earning the ire(and a punch in the nose) of Elizabeth's gruff  old father(Robert Forster). There's such a delicate balance of tones here, from quirky to sad to extremely silly. Payne loves the road trip movie, used in some way in both About Schmidt and in Sideways, and the lush Hawaiian landscape makes for a pristine backdrop. If you're aching for a vacation there, chances are you'll have a ticket bought and paid for by the time the credits roll. The setting also makes for an interesting contrast, these people and their messy, dirty lives set in the middle of a little slice of paradise. 


Payne and screenwriters Nat Faxon and Jim Rash work wonders with the script, yet it's the performances that make The Descendants so unique. Clooney, who seems to excel the less glamorous the role, has just jumped to the front of the Best Actor pack. His performance here is a revelation, more subtle and nuanced than even the one he gave in Up in the Air. The rest of the cast is no less remarkable, especially Shailene Woodley as Alexandra and Amara Miller as young Scottie. Alexandra easily could have become the typical angry teenager we've seen a million times before, but Woodley makes her seem like a real person, not a Hollywood stereotype. Miller may have the most heart wrenching scene of all later in the film. It's a scene that we see coming from the beginning, but when it happens you're still totally unprepared for. 


The ties that bind us to our family and our homes never diminish over time, but re-emerge to inform us at a time of need. That seems to be one of the many messages the film is trying to impart. Like life, The Descendants never unfolds as you expect it to. The feelings and connections between these people are too complex for a simple resolution. It's the elegance with which Alexander Payne navigates those bonds, coupled with his superb cast, that makes The Descendants one of the best movies of 2011.