Review: 'The Descendants'

Film: The Descendants 
Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard, Robert Forster, Nick Krause
Director: Alexander Payne
Rating: ***

Real estate titan Matt King is a troubled man. Yes, he lives in Hawaii and has George Clooney looks but the middle-aged workaholic’s mind is occupied by the implications of his wife Elizabeth being in a coma.

Far from being the perfect spouse, the outdoor sports obsessed Elizabeth received her injury in a boating accident. But Matt informs us in a voiceover that his role towards his daughters Alexandra (Woodlie) and Scottie (Miller) was largely that of “the backup parent”. 

The former (17), deprived of attention and drug-addled was shipped away to an expensive boarding school while the latter is a precocious brat (10), always up to attention-seeking antics. At the back of Matt’s mind is a sale of large swathes of a family trust-owned pristine land which has implications for the natives of Hawaii. 

With a lineage dating back to Hawaiian royalty, Matt, the sole trustee to the body which is due to expire in seven years, must ensure that the land is delivered into reliable hands.

But more troubles await Matt when Alexandra tells her oblivious father about her mother’s extramarital affair. With the knowledge that his wife’s days are numbered with her condition reaching the point of termination according her will, he must seek out her lover, with his kids’ help.

Based on the book of the same name by Kaui Hart Hemmings , The Descendants, reminiscent of Little Miss Sunshine and American Beauty, deals with a mean coping with weighty issues, it is itself a pretty light watch. The beauty of the film’s setting can not be overstated, writers Nat Faxon, Jim Rash and Payne put out a yarn that is at times as disjointed as it manifold nature of its protagonist’s woeful ordeals. There are his children, who are a handful (but who, like several other characters, aren’t adequately etched out), there is the quest he takes them on to identify and shame her lover, and leave us not to forget the land deal.

Throughout, an arbitrary quirkiness prevails right from the unnecessary voiceover to its introduction of all of Matt’s cousins (when the one played by Beau Bridges is the only one who is of importance) to the boneheaded character Sid. Played by Krause, Sid, is the quintessential comic relief one must have on a roadtrip to seek out incapacitated and soon-to-be-dead wife’s lover (hey, someone has to give the kids company). Also, with the rare chuckle here and there, the film is not without amusing instances but the dialogue, often in the case of the kids falls back on shock value on profanity can provide, is wanting in wit.

George Clooney, a reliable actor, gives a reliable performance as a man with whom it is easy to sympathise and even relate to — nothing more, nothing less. Better than him is Robert Forster who plays his crusty, grief-stricken father-in-law who is unfair in his assessment of Matt, charging him on every opportunity for the loss of the daughter he knew. Woodley and Greer are good with their llimitedly fleshed roles too.
 
The Descendants — a film which has garnered much acclaim elsewhere is a decent, but unessential watch which brings together comedy, drama and tragedy, but not always adeptly. And no amount of meditative and elegiac Pacific music and landscape shots can change that for this reviewer.