The Descendants
★★★★
The Descendants had been sitting on my watchlist for an embarrassingly long time. I honestly don’t know why I never got around to it, especially because Alexander Payne has become a filmmaker whose work really lands for me. I even owned this on a used DVD for years and somehow never popped it in.
This is very much in my sweet spot. I love adult dramas like this, especially ones that feel somewhat in the James L. Brooks wheelhouse, although Payne’s stories usually have a little more darkness and seriousness baked into them. That is definitely the case here.
I thought this was a really good movie. I wouldn’t call it Payne’s best, but it dives into heavy issues of life, death, grief and family responsibility in a way I didn’t totally expect. It makes sense that it won Best Adapted Screenplay, but it still caught me off guard knowing Jim Rash and Nat Faxon co-wrote the film with Payne, mostly because I associate them as much sillier, more heightened performers.
Payne is the perfect director for this material because he is so good with pacing and small moments. He takes his time, but his movies never feel slow. He knows how to sit with a scene, live in a setting and let people reveal themselves naturally.
George Clooney is perfectly cast here. He is obviously a movie star, but he is relatable enough that you completely buy him as this overwhelmed husband and father trying to hold everything together. Some of his best moments come when he has to smile through impossible conversations, especially as decisions have to be made about his wife while she is in a coma. You can feel him trying to keep the right face on while everything underneath is cracking.
One of the biggest joys of the film is how it presents Hawaii. Right from the beginning, it challenges the postcard version of the islands. As someone who has never been, I appreciated seeing Hawaii as a place where real people live, work, struggle and deal with messy family issues far away from the resort version we usually see.
I was also surprised by how great the supporting cast is. Matthew Lillard is perfectly cast, even in a smaller role. Judy Greer has always been a favorite of mine, and she knows exactly how to deliver a line in Payne’s world. Shailene Woodley really stands out as Clooney’s oldest daughter, and you can see why this helped launch her into bigger roles. Amara Miller is also terrific as the younger daughter, perfectly capturing the energy of a troubled, annoying younger sibling without ever feeling fake.
And Robert Forster? Perfect. He steals every scene he is in. Same with Beau Bridges, who slides right into Payne’s world without ever distracting from the bigger story. That is one of Payne’s strengths. He fills his movies with characters who feel like real people, not just plot devices.
This may be a tough watch for anyone currently dealing with a loved one’s health battle. But what the movie captures so well is the impossible task of making hard decisions while still keeping everyone else around you moving. It shows how grief, responsibility, anger and love all get tangled together, and how sometimes you don’t handle things perfectly, but you keep going.
The Descendants is a quiet, deeply human film about family, forgiveness and finding a way through the worst moments with the people you love beside you.
