The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011)

[stroszeck]

Gotta say caught this one last night due to the incredibly overwhelming praise of the film everywhere (and i mean EVERYWHERE) i looked. It was good Payne, not great. Agree with just about all the criticisms on this board, particularly about Beau Bridges doing his Jeff impersonation (the guy even stole the Dude's haircut, I mean come on!). Perhaps an additional viewing is necessary to get all the subtext and what not, but gotta say my favorite part was when

Spoiler

Clooney kissed Matthew Lillard's wife goodbye on the lips. Lots of gasps from the audience.

[FerdinandGriffon]

gotta say my favorite part was when

Spoiler

Clooney kissed Matthew Lillard's wife goodbye on the lips. Lots of gasps from the audience.

Agreed. Especially as it was the only part in the film where Payne seemed to let his guard down and let Clooney's character be as charmingly self-absorbed as he was, without making all kinds of unconvincing excuses for him.

[wattsup32]

There were so many times when the emotion in the movie could have taken a turn for the Spielberg, but was steered clear at the last second. I am thinking in particular of when:

Spoiler

Judy Greer came and gave her "I forgive you" diatribe the Clooney's comatose wife. It seemed to me a near certainty that there was about to be a "let's all forgive everyone because I've learned so much" moment. Instead, Clooney gets tired of dealing with it and kicks her out.

Agree with just about all the criticisms on this board, particularly about Beau Bridges doing his Jeff impersonation (the guy even stole the Dude's haircut, I mean come on!).

I'm wondering what people's expectations are for the look and behavior of someone living off of trust money in Hawaii?

[dustybooks]

Context: About Schmidt is one of the top movies of the 2000s for me, and I loathed Sideways for reasons I never fully was able to articulate. I thought The Descendants was brilliant. Not sure exactly how much of the rest of my comments to put in spoiler tags, so uh, I put the whole thing behind them.

Spoiler

I lost a parent this year, which may be one reason I found the story and the characters more believable than in most of Payne's films. My relationship with my dad was extremely rocky and ambiguous, so for me Shailene Woodley's portrayal of the older daughter Alex was unexpectedly touching. I suppose the film may have oversold its obsession with families and the estrangements and awkward battles therein, but it felt right to me somehow.

Thought it was interesting how much the film shared in mood and basic story content with Schmidt, most significantly the discovery of a dead or dying spouse having cheated. What's interesting is that Descendants allows a lot of catharsis that Payne was careful to deny in the earlier film: the confrontation of the lover and Matt King's expression of his pain are so far out front in comparison to Schmidt's constant containment, even at his daughter's marriage to a kid he despises (the equivalent to Sid, I suppose).

As someone stated above, while the basic structure is somewhat predictable, even individual scenes spiral off into unexpected directions. One of the most remarkable moments was Judy Greer's speech to the comatose Elizabeth; it seemed initially to be setting up some sort of unexpected tenderness then quickly veered off into uncomfortable, uncharted territory.

My favorite thing about Payne's work, even in the films I haven't really liked, is his eye for odd details that aren't really artificial quirks: I was the only one in the theater who seemed to get such a kick out of Clooney clumsily jumping into flip flops and racing around the neighborhood. I also love, as in Sideways, the use of television as a strange comedic backdrop / counterpoint, which reminds me a bit of stuff like Mr. Rogers and Basketball Jones showing up in Being There.

The only major criticisms I've got are that:
- The fleshing out of Sid in the night conversation scene seemed contrived.
- Clooney's goodbye to Elizabeth felt just a tiny bit overwrought, even if the pathos was earned. The ashes scene was perfect, though.

[dad1153]

Except for Nick Krause's Sid being shoe-horned into a narrative/scenes where he didn't belong (Payne is enamored of this juxtaposition of personalities within his comedy/drama arcs; see Chris Klein's similar character in "Election" for the same routine done right) and Clooney's annoying voice-over at the start (which thankfully goes away) "The Descendants" is my second-favorite Alexander Payne movie after "Election" ("About Schmidt" and "Sideways" left me cold and only individual scenes in "Citizen Ruth" were Payne-worthy). The same way "Young Adult" showed me an America covered in corporate logos/billboards I'm familiar with I love the way Payne and DP Phedon Papamichael shoot Hawaii as the unglamorous everyday dump it would looks like if you lived there. I hated the soundtrack too (don't like Hawaiian music all) but I love the way Payne is relentless in using it to underline that this, not the TV commercials for tourism or the TV shows like "Lost," is the real Hawaii. Switching to a score or non-Hawaiian music would have turned "The Descendants" into another movie, instead of this 'postcard from the real Hawaii as seen through the eyes of A. Payne' movie that bears the personal touch of its director. The older Clooney gets the more I like his work; there's a maturity, simplicity and everyday Joe (handsomer than most but accesible) appeal to his Matt King character that works nicely when contrasted with his other cousins, family members and friends. I totally bought the two scenes where Matt

Spoiler

shouts angry insults at his comatose wife, then cries and loses it while saying goodbye

because they didn't come out of left field as show-off pieces (like the scene where Matt falls on his knees), but were arrived to at moments where "The Descendants" had earned the right to have some pathos. Beau Bridges and Robert Forster's brief scenes are highlights and the kid actors are mostly OK (Shailene Woodley). Other than the sale of the land handled in a predictable manner (though the way we arrive there is anything but conventional) "The Descendants" is the type of Payne comedic melodrama that zigs when you expect it to zag, which makes arriving at predictable and expected story points all the more enjoyable and unpredictable.

[domino harvey]

Citizen Ruth is brilliant and shows how toothless most modern satires are in comparison

[domino harvey]

Looks like I wasn't the only one who greeted this film with a shrug. It's not bad at all, but it seems like we see this movie every couple years... Clooney and Woodley are both great and are really the only reason beyond the idyllic Hawaiian setting to give it the benefit of consideration after the fact. Payne's direction is generic and so's the script, I'm sorry to say. How this B-Minus lark is a frontrunner for the Oscars is anyone's guess, but at least if it picks up an acting win or two it won't be too big a crime.

[MichaelB]

My local cinema scheduled an unexpected matinée of this today, so I finally caught up with it - and pretty much agree with what appears to be the consensus here: I think it's minor Payne (though I'm also one who was less than wowed by About Schmidt), but his keen intelligence is constantly in evidence, often in wholly unexpected ways, and I agree with Dad1153 that the 'Hawaiian' soundtrack was clearly subversive.

Like Dustybooks, though, I may have forged a personal connection - my parents are still alive, but I became my family's primary childcarer just under a year ago when my wife restarted her full-time career, and my daughter in particular is like a younger, slimmer, redheaded version of Scottie. I can just imagine her saying "I don't mind!" when I'm admonishing someone else for swearing in front of her.

[flyonthewall2983]

I'm sure if I had daughters like that, I'd probably be on suicide watch.