'Descendants' a delightful comic drama
"The Descendants" is a blunt, honest drama about the inherent messiness of life, and it adroitly deals with the mess on a level of maturity and thoughtfulness that eludes most movies like this one.
It comes from director Alexander Payne, and if you remember his wine-drinking buddy road comedy "Sideways," you know how adept he is at creating scenes of dramatic density riddled with comic emotional conflicts.
"The Descendants" could be considered the opposite of the Oscar-winning movie "Ordinary People," about a family that disintegrates in the aftermath of tragedy.
Payne's drama, based on Kaui Hart Hemmings' novel, concerns a dysfunctional family that actually pulls together in the wake of disaster.
George Clooney, already on a roll with his portrait of a hypocritical politician in "Ides of March," blends raw empathy with a quirky comic sensibility as Matt King, a self-confessed incompetent father of two girls living in the paradise of our 50th state, Hawaii.
"I'm the backup parent," he explains in an angry, voice-over diatribe that sets him up as a financial success failing at everything else in life.
He quickly admits his inadequacies as a dad who has produced a disrespectful, wild-child teenager named Alex ("Secret Life of an American Teenager" star Shailene Woodley) and her confused 10-year-old sister Scottie (Amara Miller).
Matt confesses that his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) has been the glue holding the family together, and she now lies in a hospital bed comatose after a boating accident.
At the same time, Matt feels pressure from his relatives to sell 25,000 acres of pristine land on the island of Kauai, property his family has owned for generations, and he holds the majority of the trust that manages the acreage.
But the real plot of "The Descendants" doesn't kick in until Matt discovers that his loving wife had been having an affair for a long time.
Who is this other man? Where did they meet? Why did she see him?
Suddenly, Matt loses interest in everything except answering those questions, and he's not happy that his friends and co-workers seem to know all about the affair.
"The Descendants" is foremost about the ability of thinking people to bring their best selves to the surface at exactly the time you expect to see their worst.
Payne doesn't paint any situation or character in black-and-white. Everything's about better choices vs. worse choices. And the ability of characters to evolve, to mature and listen to the angels of their better natures.
Alex slowly grows to connect to Dad. Surprisingly, she gets a kick out of helping Dad track down Mom's alleged lover. Dad, meanwhile pulls back from an easy revenge and employs a dose of forgiveness in reluctantly understanding his wife's actions.
Even Alex's doofus boyfriend Sid (Nick Krause), who would have remained just a shallow, oafish clown in regular movies, oozes good character when he's really squeezed.
Hovering over everything in this movie is the nudging decision Matt knows he'll have to make: to pull the plug on Elizabeth, in accordance with her written wishes.
As much as "The Descendants" sounds like a downer movie, it's just the opposite. It's a bold comic drama that understands the complexity of just being a family, and treats its characters - and us, the viewers - with adoring respect.
You'll see some terrific actors in supporting roles here: Beau Bridges as Matt's greedy cousin, Robert Forster as Matt's pugnacious father-in-law; Matthew Lillard as the unexpected "other man,"and Judy Greer as his delightful, unknowing wife.
There's just a tinge of the White Savior complex in "The Descendants" where the future of Kauai's unspoiled beauty falls to Clooney's white-dominant, mixed-race character to save.
In the end, family triumphs, and that's because Matt King's newfound definition of "family" expands to a slightly wider group than his relatives.
“The Descendants”
★ ★ ★ ★
Starring: George Clooney, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges, Nick Krause, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller
Directed by: Alexander Payne
Other: A Fox Searchlight release. Opens at the River East 21, Icon, Century Centre in Chicago and the Evanston CineArts 6. Rated R for language. 115 minutes