SALON

Wednesday, Sep 14, 2011 12:30 AM UTC

“The Descendants”: Clooney’s Oscar-worthy role as a Hawaiian dad

Toronto: Alexander Payne's gentle family tragicomedy "The Descendants" features the star as a Hawaiian dad

By

Topics: Toronto International Film Festival, George Clooney, Our Picks, Movies,

A still from "The Descendants"

TORONTO — More of a muted, bittersweet Hawaiian-themed cocktail than a masterful cinematic experience, Alexander Payne’s new family comedy-drama “The Descendants” clearly emerges from the Toronto International Film Festival as a leading Oscar contender. I suppose that’s partly a commentary on the middling quality of this year’s Toronto lineup, which features many small-scale delights but few smash hits. But it’s also an endorsement of the low-key, seemingly casual charm of “The Descendants,” which begins as a rambling tale about an inept father wrestling with tragedy and gradually builds toward a satisfying emotional payoff.

This is George Clooney’s star vehicle this fall — as opposed to “The Ides of March,” which he directed and in which he plays a supporting role — and this is the one that may see him collecting gold figurines during the cold-weather months. Clooney’s gotten better and braver as he’s aged, and no longer seems the least concerned with nurturing his personal vanity or protecting his star image. He is unquestionably the star of “The Descendants,” but his character, a slightly disheveled Honolulu lawyer named Matt King who seems to view chinos and a Hawaiian shirt as formal attire, is not exactly a glamorous movie hero.

Matt faces a number of crises at once, and is ill prepared for all of them. His wife is in a coma after a serious boating accident, and his daughters, 17-year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and 10-year-old Scotty (Judy Greer) are in open rebellion against parental authority. Matt’s superficially eager to seize the moment and become a better husband and father, but essentially has no idea how to manage it. Then there’s the immense land trust he manages for his extended family, 25,000 pristine acres on the island of Kauai that represents the last untouched inheritance of Hawaiian royalty. (Matt and his tribe are “haoles,” or white Hawaiians, but are descended from the House of Kamehameha through a great-great-grandmother.) The time to sell out to a developer, and reap an enormous payoff that will make the whole family rich, seems to have come — but the final decision lies with Matt.

There’s more to explain, but since this movie won’t reach theaters until November, I’ll save a more detailed plot discussion for another time. But Clooney’s understated performance as an undemonstrative guy, who at first seems way too bland and average to hold our attention, is the heart of the movie’s appeal and its genius. Payne is a director who refuses to be rushed — it’s been seven years since he made “Sideways,” and “The Descendants” bumbles episodically around the Hawaiian islands, buffeted by trade winds and gently supported by slack-key guitar pop. Matt has to grow gradually in seriousness and moral stature along the way, as he realizes that he may be losing Elizabeth for good — and might have even without the boat accident.

There aren’t any huge surprises about where “The Descendants” is going. (If you’ve ever seen a movie or a play or a television episode, you don’t even need to wonder what Matt’s going to do with that land.) So how much you like it will largely be a question of whether you enjoy getting there at Payne’s leisurely pace. There haven’t been many films set against the real-life culture of contemporary Hawaii (as opposed to touristy episodes shot on the beach), and Payne captures the slightly sleepy but fully modern atmosphere beautifully. But spectacular scenery and an interesting backdrop only gets you so far, and “The Descendants” follows the delicate music between the characters as Matt takes his first baby steps toward a new relationship with his family and the world. He forges an uneasy but tender alliance with Alexandra — who is suddenly forced into the role of substitute mom for her little sister — and realizes for the first time that her stoner boyfriend, Sid (nice comic relief from Nick Krause), isn’t as much of an idiot as he thought.

Clooney does have one big emotional scene — and it will break you down if you have any kind of heart — but his performance is really about tiny details, like the way he starts to look at other people a little differently, without saying anything. It’s as if he realizes for the first time that they are suffering human beings just the way he is, and that his blithe Hawaiian businessman’s optimism is an utterly inadequate response and always was. Exactly what’s likely to appeal to a large moviegoing audience about the King family is the fact that they’re ordinary people facing an altogether ordinary tragedy in an extraordinary setting, with a bit of highly symbolic side action attached. Heck, I’ve seen better and more adventurous movies than this; I’ve seen some this week. But “The Descendants” is gentle, witty, audience-friendly entertainment for grown-ups, with a great performance by one of our biggest screen stars.

Andrew O

More Andrew O'Hehir.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 11 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations