George Clooney, Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller in 'The Descendants' - Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures
Matt
King (George Clooney) comes from a distinct lineage. In terms of his
own narrative, that of the new Alexander Payne film The
Descendants, he is a modern-day land baron,
the trustee of a family that owns the last and largest untapped
acreage in Hawaii. But King is a simple man with a wife (Patricia
Hastie) in a coma and two daughters, Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and
Scottie (Amara Miller), who knows that paradise is a dream world for
fools. So King is a descendant here of past good fortune and recent
infidelity, but he stands in a longer, richer line — that of
Payne’s scathing dramedies.
Opens Nov. 23. Check out theaters and show times, see the trailer and get theater details here.
[Read Jason Gargano's interview with Woodley here.]
Like Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) in Election, Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) in About Schmidt and Miles (Paul Giamatti) in Sideways, King finds himself beset by forces beyond his control and/or understanding.
Nothing so epic as to be deemed biblical in nature; just the inevitable struggles of life. But The Descendants benefits from time, coming seven years after Sideways, a period during which Payne also grappled with his own set of challenging circumstances (divorce, health issues, etc.) and came out the other side a different man, one more aware of his intrinsic humanity, which is what makes King a great (near perfect) addition to the Payne oeuvre. He is more in touch with his humanity, less lost in the drama, even when it dives into absurdity.King is never just a character; he is a man, one who learns how to survive, and the true lion’s share of the credit belongs to Clooney because he — the movie star, the director, the renaissance man — disappears into the recesses of the past, leaving only King and his kin to walk boldly into their future. Grade: A
Opens Nov. 23. Check out theaters and show times, see the trailer and get theater details here.
