“THE DESCENDANTS”
George Clooney plays Matt King, a harried Everyman with a dying wife and two young daughters in Alexander Payne’s new drama, “The Descendants”.
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While his wife lies in a coma, his greedy cousins want him to sell some exotic real estate that the family has owned for generations (and I do mean exotic — the film is set in Hawaii), knowing that it’s worth a bundle; and his older daughter, Alexandra, has just told him that prior to the boating accident that has left his wife hospitalized, she had been having an affair.
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The questions multiply rapidly: Will his wife, Elizabeth, emerge from her coma? Without his wife by his side, will he finally become the devoted Dad he had never been before? (A lawyer, he’s been more of an absentee father than anything else.) Will he ever find the guy who has cuckolded him, and what will happen if he does? And what about that pristine piece of paradise? Will he — at the family’s behest — sell it, or will he listen to his conscience and hold onto it a little longer?
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The answers might surprise you.
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The movie’s TV ads are a bit deceiving; they may show Clooney running around in shorts and flip-flops, looking vaguely buffoonish, but he is not a clown here, and “The Descendants” is not a comedy. It’s like life itself — sometimes funny things happen, and sometimes . . . they don’t. (And, yes, that scene at the end featuring Clooney and his comatose wife is every bit the weeper that the critics have said it is. Bring the Kleenex — you’ll need it.)
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Clooney is superb; rough around the edges and brimming with uncertainty, he turns in a hell of a performance as a sorrowful soul who can barely keep his shattered family together. It’s an unusual role for him, and he handles it beautifully.
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Amara Miller, as his younger daughter Scottie, is charming; Shailene Woodley as his older daughter has some truly fine moments; and the rest of the cast does terrific work, too.
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There might be a few too many idyllic shots of those beautiful Hawaiian vistas — if I wanted a travelogue, I’d have sent away for a brochure — but that’s a minor quibble. Yes, “The Descendants” can be sappy and sentimental. Yes, it wears its heart on its sleeve. But it wears it well.
“THE IDES OF MARCH”
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The “other” George Clooney film this year (he co-wrote and directed it, AND plays the chief supporting role) — a film that, incredibly, has NOT been nominated for Best Picture — is “The Ides of March”, a twisty political thriller that exposes the horrors of the campaign trail. (How topical can you get?) There’s backstabbing, Machiavellian machinations, and scandal — all the things we’ve come to expect from our political campaigns. It’s presidential politics as high drama — and it makes for compelling viewing, indeed.
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Ryan Gosling stars as Stephen Meyers, an ambitious young bulldog doing his damnedest to get his candidate — a man he respects and admires — on the ballot come November. Gosling, so enigmatic (translation: dull) in his last film, “Drive”, doesn’t exactly wear his heart on his sleeve here, but at least he has one (a heart, that is). Grimly determined to help his man win, willing to sacrifice his honor (if not his soul) along the way, his youthful but cynical politico is his best work since “Crazy Stupid Love”.
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As the candidate, Ohio Governor Mike Morris. Clooney’s eyes shine and his smile dazzles. He huddles with Stephen, cuddles (briefly, in the back of a limo) with his wife, and addresses his cheering supporters, all on his way to what he hopes will be the nomination. With his graying hair, matinee idol sex appeal, and clarion voice he looks and sounds more like the perfect presidential candidate, Democratic or otherwise, than . . . well, some of our presidential candidates.
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“The Ides ol March” is a splendidly acted movie all around — everyone from Evan Rachel Wood as a campaign aide with a secret to Philip Seymour Hoffman as Stephen’s treacherous boss turns in terrific work.
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But, sadly, its only Oscar nomination is in the Best Adapted Screenplay catagory (sharing writing credit with Clooney are Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon; the script is based on a play by Willimon). In the biggest category of all — Best Picture — it was overlooked.
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Don’t make the same mistake. It is, quite simply, one of the best movies of the year.
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FILM REVIEW by Stuart R. Brynien
