When I sat down to watch The Descendants, it had already won numerous accolades including the Golden Globe for best dramatic feature. Naturally I was expecting to be blow away, and while I enjoyed watching it thoroughly, my feet stayed firmly rooted to the ground. I may have been a victim of buying too much into the hype.
In the film, George Clooney gets out of his comfort zone in his role as Matt King, a Hawaiian middle aged man born into a huge inheritance but working as a lawyer nonetheless. His wife has been in a speedboat accident and is in a coma with the prognosis not being good. He has to help his rebellious teen daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and younger daughter Scottie (Amara Miller) deal with the tragedy.
At the same time Matt is brokering a deal to sell a massive family land holding to real estate developers. He is the sole trustee of a family trust and it is up to him to make a decision that will make everyone in his large family happy.
Then comes a final complication: Matt finds out his comatose wife had been having an affair before her accident. This sends him on a spiral as he tries to find the man who was sleeping with his wife. With all these different elements in place, we follow Matt and his family as they island hop trying to resolve and cope with all these complications.
With all its praise and awards, The Descendants however feels like a by-the-numbers indie film with all the basic indie staples. Family dysfunction – check, mellow laid-back soundtrack – check, exotic location – check, oddball characters – check and check.
What sets it apart is great performances from the cast led by a pitch-perfect Clooney in one of the best roles of his career. He is totally convincing as a clueless father and stumbling out of the dark husband. Shailene Woodley as Alex the older daughter is also a joy to watch and she puts no foot wrong in her performance. The cast is rounded off by solid support from the likes of Robert Forster as Matt’s father-in-law, Matthew Lillard as the “other” man & Judy Greer as the “other” man’s woman.
There is a lot going on in the plot but Alexander Payne (Director) manages to balance everything with grace. The film has plenty of real emotional moments but the amount of drama is nowhere near a film like Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation.” It also has in it a subtle humor that works very well to balance some of the more tragic elements. I just wish I had watched it without a ton of expectation, I’m sure I would have enjoyed it much more.
Rating: 7/10