The Descendants

"I'm the backup parent, the understudy"

George Clooney makes one of his perennial visits to indie territory, and this time it coincides with Oscar season and a director who shoots to score. It's been a long time between films for director-writer Alexander Payne, his last film was the excellent Sideways in 2004, and here he teams up with the Cloonster in an attempt to create something equally special.

Clooney plays Matt King, the descendant of Hawaiian royalty and executive of a trustee group that owns a rather lucrative slice of paradise in the form of some untapped Hawaiian land. Matt is expected by his fellow trustees to sign the land over in a big real estate deal that will make them all very rich, but at the moment he's dealing with some family issues that will test his mettle as a father and a husband. As Matt's wife lays dying in a coma, he reconnects with his partially-estranged teenage daughter Alex (Shailene Woodley) and, along with his other daughter and a teenage blow-in named Sid, they embark on a mission to uncover his wife's secret second life before she shuffles off this mortal coil.

The main question that fuels this rather unhurried journey is whether Elizabeth King's inevitable death will be the catalyst for change in Matt's life. Matt seems largely ill-equipped to play the role of supportive dad, which forces him into an unusual relationship dynamic with the bitter Alex, where she becomes his confidant and advisor. The twin subplots relating to the sale of the land and Matt's family issues threaten to become both overly complex and mutually exclusive, but Payne is more than adept at handling humanistic drama and the script uses these situations to create an invested originality without resorting to quirkiness. It is a highly engaging story, primarily helped along in great spades by Clooney (whose confidence as a performer has a relaxing quality that helps offset the potential so-what-ed-ness of the story).

George Clooney is a good actor, but he's also a throwback to the Gary Coopers and Cary Grants of yesteryear. He's not really prone to big moments or character-parts, but he has a presence and a sense of dignity that shines through in whatever kind of film he chooses to be in. It's hard not to like him, and I guess I can't begrudge his nominations for awards (even if it is just recognition for the way his body of work continues to reinforce itself). This film's success (both critically and narratively speaking) owes everything to Clooney's involvement as the lead. But if he's the lead, than the biggest co-star is the location itself. Hawaii is shown for once in a more human contex - this isn't an Adam Sandler vacation or an episode of Lost, this is a real place that the rest of the world doesn't usually get such a proper look at. Clooney and the supporting cast all help to suggest a real sense of place that doesn't just feel like a bit of tropical fluff for the cameras.

I don't think The Descendants is actually quite up at the level that everyone wants it to be, it isn't a big film and part of me feels that the awards-season buzz surroundingg it comes solely from the pairing of Clooney and Payne at the respective apexes of their careers. It could very well be all downhill from here for both of them, and the critical expectations they face don't get fully realised in this deliberately understated film. At any other time of year I would call The Descendants an engaging and accomplished gem, but right now it just doesn't feel to me like a 'Best Picture' contender. Don't get me wrong, I really liked this film (I loved the character of Sid in particular, who injected some much needed unpredictability into the dialogue), but it's a 'small' movie. It wants to be small, it's a human story. I just can't correlate that with all the hype.

DIRECTOR: Alexander Payne
WRITER/SOURCE: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings.
KEY ACTORS: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Robert Forster, Matthew Lillard, Beau Bridges, Judy Greer, Nick Krause

RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings, released in 2007.
- Payne's three previous films are Election, About Schmidt and Sideways.
- Clooney's previous grabs for Oscar glory have all involved characterisations with varying degrees of bittersweetness: The American, Up in the Air and Michael Clayton.
- For another film about a dysfunctional family being pulled back together, see Ulee's Gold.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - won Best Adapted Screenplay. Nominated for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (George Clooney) and Best Film Editing.
AFIs - nominated for Best International Film, Best International Actor (Clooney) and Best International Screenplay.
BAFTAs - nominated for Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor (Clooney).
Golden Globes - won Best Film (Drama) and Best Actor (Clooney). Also nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Shailene Woodley), Best Director and Best Screenplay.
Independent Spirit Awards - won Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Female (Woodley). Nominated for Best Film and Best Director.