The Descendants Review

23rd Jan 2012

George Clooney plays Matt king a successful lawyer part of a large family of descendants living on a Honolulu island with his youngest daughter. The drama boots right off when his estranged wife he was intending on making amends with has a boating accident and ends up in a coma. Matt is left with a daughter of 10 he barely understands, and a 17 year old daughter off at a private school who he understands even less.

Once the family is back together it soon transpires that Matt’s wife was seeing another man and was headed for divorce. With his wife on a hospital bed, a large estate deal coming up (involving every other member of his family) and several dramas to work through – he spends the time having to be the rock at everyone’s centre whilst barley having anywhere to let out his own emotions.

Clooney delivers an astounding performance. His charm and charisma as an actor is at an all time peak. Following Matt King is never a bore as he goes from argument to argument, and mopes around in the interim as often he ends up with the short end of the stick.

The supporting cast around him are all very good, particularly Shailene Woodley as his 17 year old daughter, Alex. Much of this is down to the fact that she has landed a part that is deeper than most roles for any other 17 year old characters. At first you get what you expect out of a spoilt teen, but as the film progresses we see her character deal with her imminent issues and grow a mature head on her body.

It’s Clooney’s show and it’s no wonder he’s already getting awards for his efforts. A particular high note for the drama is when he takes his frustration out on his comatose wife, literally beckoning her to respond. It’s the height of melodrama, but it’s also the height of his cowardice as he can’t seem to win any other fight he gets into and has to excuse his daughters before launching into his tirade. It’s a true classic Clooney acting moment.

Alexander Payne is one of the more respect independent American film makers working at the moment, perhaps sharing a similar type of praise as Wes Anderson and Jason Reitman (both of which, Clooney has also worked with). The Descendants fits right in with these directors more prominent work as they often revolve around failing families living in an unconventional world and how the characters associate and disassociate themselves towards resolution.

What makes these films stand out in the writing is the world which they characters are represented. Take these situations out of here and drop them into something more conventionally familiar and you could easily have the same story, but with less flare. Whether this is “script dressing” on the film-makers part to make the films more of a saleable commodity is not know at this time, but to their credit – this little bit of extra thought into the tales they tell do help them stand out from the crowd.

The only down note (depending on your taste) is that these films often carry similar sounding soundtracks. The descendants may have something that sounds native to the film, but it is still a lot of acoustic guitar sounding indie. Like Reitman’s Juno or Up in the Air; Anderson can’t seem to let 5 minutes go by without having another acoustic guitar montage of images. It’s the film’s only sour point and gets to the point where it starts to grate the nerves. The montages are nicely shot, but look nothing more than a holiday promotional video for the islands the characters inhabit. If the film is popular – you can expect the tourist industry for the area to shoot up.