Set in Hawaii, the lead character-narrator is Matt King (George Clooney), a lawyer who is the direct descendant of Hawaiian royalty. As the film starts, his wife Elizabeth is already in coma after a boat accident. He now has to deal with his two daughters, the rebellious Alexandre (Shailene Woodley), 17, and the precocious Scottie (Amara Miller), 10, who are both not close to him as he’s too busy with work he hardly has time for his family. Now, as a single dad, he has no choice but to make a connection with them.
When the doctor tells him his wife would never recover and it’s best to withdraw any life support, it becomes his responsibility to officially inform family members and friends about it. His world crumbles further when Alexandre tells him that she saw her mom with another man and was actually already planning to divorce him. Matt decides to look for the lover, Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard of “Scooby Doo”), to also inform him of what’s to happen to Elizabeth. He finds him in a beach resort, along with his wife and two sons.
The film works because it chooses to have none of the usual messy confrontations even in scenes that can easily turn melodramatic. It doesn’t force you to cry at all. When Matt learns about his wife infidelity, he runs to the house of their friends to ask if they knew about it. From there, he runs again, stops on the pavement, sobs, but the camera is so far away from him and we only see his back. Such is the kind of treatment given to potentially sentimental scenes.
But still, there are some scenes that are emotionally charged, foremost of which is when Scottie is officially informed on what will happen to her mom. This is a wordless scene. We only see the reaction of Scottie. And it’s very effective. To counter some potentially sappy scenes, Payne injects humor through Sid (Alec Krause), the friend of Alexandre who has his own hang-ups and provides some comic relief.
The Hawaiian locations are very beautiful on screen and there’s a pivotal subplot concerning an inherited huge parcel of land that Matt’s relatives wants to sell.
The role of Matt is truly an acting piece for Clooney. He’s no Hollywood star here like in “Up in the Air”, but an aging father with greying hair, wrinkles and all. As the narrator, he gets to deliver such lines as “In Hawaii, some of the most powerful people look like bums and stuntmen”. He also gets to explore his character’s sentiments fully, especially his feelings for his dying wife before and after he learns that she’s unfaithful to him. He interacts with her while she’s just lying in bed, never able to respond to his anger. But his best scene is when he finally bids her goodbye, kissing her while a single tear runs down from his eye to his nose.
We were so moved by that scene. The film starts with him distant from his daughters, but the final scene showing the three of them together on the couch watching TV while eating makes you feel that they’ll be okay as they’re now a family. A silent scene but so exquisitely heart warming!
Also giving great support are the young actresses who play Matt’s daughters, Robert Forster as Matt’s father in law who doesn’t like him and Judy Greer as Brian’s wife who’s the only character allowed to go unrestrained in the hospital scene where she says repeatedly “I forgive you” to the dying Elizabeth that it becomes comical after a while. Sensitively handled with uncommon sensibility, “The Descendants” offers great satisfaction to those who view cinema as not just fatuous entertainment. If you go for serious films, watch it quick as one as we don’t think it will last very long in our theatres.