DVD REVIEW- "The Descendants" 2011

The Descendants

Directed by Alexander Payne

Running Time 110 minutes

Rated R

 It must be nice to be George Clooney. To have your pick of whatever role you want. To be able to weed through all the offers presented to you and be able to say, “I want to be in this one because this is a great part for me and I'll do a great job playing it.” The role of Matt King is such a part for Clooney. He did such a great job in fact that Clooney grabbed his fourth Academy award nomination for this film.

Matt is a real estate lawyer going through a family crisis. The most pertinent of which is that of coping with his wife, Elizabeth who suffered a head injury in a boating accident and dies in a coma she can't wake up from. When he finds out Elizabeth is not going to recover, he has to assume the role of caregiver with his estranged children- one 10-year old Scotty played by Amara Miller and the other 17-year-old Alex played by Shailene Woodley. Alex moves back home from college and lands a bombshell on Matt revealing that she caught her mom having an affair. Faced with the knowledge of Elizabeth's impending death, Matt makes his way through their family and friends telling them what happened and that they should go see her and say goodbye. He decides that he should also tell his wife's lover but he has to go find him.

Meanwhile the other drama Matt has to deal with is of his family's land of which he and all his cousins are direct “descendants” and are all part owners of. Matt is the oldest, so he is the trustee of the family estate, and it is his decision to whom, if anyone, to sell the land to. There is a deal in the mix that would give all the descendants millions of dollars each, but the Hawaiian property would just be developed and all its beauty would be gone and a few of the cousins would rather remain owners. In a twist, it turns out Elizabeth's lover is the man who the other cousins want to sell to.

Clooney plays the part with honesty and humility. His character is very likable and he we sympathize with his whole plight. He is a character that hasn't really done anything wrong but still has to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune because of his own flawed qualities. I kept thinking it was an even more emotional part than the one he played in “The Air Up There” and he got nominated for an Oscar for that so this one was sure to receive similar accolades.

Director Alexander Payne also directed “Sideways” and “About Schmidt” and this movie has a very similar feel. There are many moments of humor laced with real emotional themes of loss and disappointment. The movie isn't funny enough to laugh out loud over and not sad enough to cry over either. But the actions of the characters manage to surprise enough to keep us engaged throughout and their all-too-human qualities make us care for them all.

Robert Forster plays Elizabeth's father. He is unapologetic and angry and blames his daughter's plight on Matt but Clooney's character doesn't have the heart to tell him that his daughter was unfaithful. The moment is filled with so many emotions from sympathy, to despair, to warmth from our knowledge of Matt's act of selfless kindness.

Woodley's portrayal of Alex is authentic and she acts as the perfect moral compass for Matt despite her own feelings of anger and regret when dealing with her mother's death as well as her infidelity.

There will be people who like the slow and steady pace of this movie and there will be those who hate it. There will be those who find beauty and truth to the sad sequences that end the movie and there will be those who think it's boring and depressing. For me, I'm going with liked it, truthful but depressing.

Happy ending are important to movies and this one doesn't have one. True by movie's end the fractured family is put back together again but there is not enough emotional satisfaction to make up for the sadness felt over Elizabeth's death. When the movie was over I thought, “That movie was very good, I liked it. It's going to get nominated for Best Picture but it won't win because the ending was depressing.” And I was right.

Review Grade- A-