Review of The Descendants (2011) by Joshua B — 17 Mar 2013

"My friends on the mainland think just because I live in Hawaii, I live in paradise, like a permanent vacation. We're all just out here, sipping Mai Tais, shaking our hips, catching waves. Are they insane? Do they think we are immune to life? How can they possibly think our families are less screwed up, our cancers less fatal, our heartache less painful?".

So opens The Descendants, thoroughly stripping away the glamour and idealization of Hawaii -- as much as one can -- and instead making it simply the setting for a modest story of a family. Accordingly, George Clooney is not the dashing leading man, but refreshingly is just A man, a father and a husband who is tasked with caring for his two daughters alone while coping with his wife's newly vegetative state following a boating accident, and the sudden knowledge that she had been having an affair. Writer/director Alexander Payne has always been adept at capturing this directionless ennui of his male protagonists, but Clooney's may be the most real and sympathetic, thanks in large part to Clooney's performance. This is a film that touches on complex questions about family, grief, responsibility, and the process of memorializaton, and Payne's sensitive handling of that material and his willingness to embrace the inherent messiness of life while refusing to wallow in it makes The Descendants not just charming but rewarding.