The Descendants
Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause
Director: Alexander Payne
Rating: 4/5
The Oscars have always loved a good family drama. From Hoffman and Streep yelling at each other in Kramer vs Kramer to last year’s The Kids are All Right, nothing quite gets the panel going like a good domestic row. Mix in awards magnet George Cloooney and it’s to no-one’s surprise that The Descendants arrives on the back of several award wins and with An Oscar nod in its pocket.
Here we follow Matt King (George Clooney), a Hawaii based lawyer, who after his wife puts herself into a coma must learn how to deal and bond with his two daughters, teenage Alexandra and 10 year old Scottie (Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller). He’s also the sole trustee of a large piece of inherited land, Matt’s under pressure from his cousins to make the right deal for them.
When he finds out from Alexandra that his now comatose wife was having an affair, he takes upon himself to hunt down her lover to tell him the bad news taking the kids and Alexandra’s boyfriend Sid (Nick Krause) along for the ride.
While some family dramas that emerge around awards season get too ham-fisted, The Descendant is a nicely refreshing change of pace. While it never abandons the serious, dramatic emotions bubbling underneath, The Descendants isn’t scared of throwing in a dash of laughter when it’s needed most. The whip-smart script goes a long way here, nearly always striking a great balance between the dramatic and comedic.
But the main focus of the film is the sensational performance at its core. Here George Clooney once again cements himself as America’s most natural actor going.
Wonderfully muted as Matt, Clooney shows the sort of subtle emotional frailty that makes him one of the greats. He just makes it all seem so effortless; you tend to forget he’s actually acting.
He’s helped enormously by the incredibly capable Shailene Woodley, who holds her own throughout and helps give Alexandra far more texture than she really deserves.
The film isn’t perfect however. The Descendants is hampered by its busy opening, relying far too often on the crutch of narration to get itself out of plot-overload moments. Also, the entirety of Sid is completely unwanted. Never much more than a deeply unlikeable lunkhead, the film continues to try and thrust him on the audience despite being easily its weakest part.
While a family drama with witty dashes from the director of Sideways and starring Clooney sounds just about perfect, the occasional lack of cogency and the continued presence of Sid hold it back from true greatness. Still a great frame for Clooney’s brilliant performance, The Descendants defiantly doesn’t disappoint.
The Descendants is out now
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in George Clooney