The Descendants - Alexander Payne (2011)

How can one write about a human drama after just writing about a human drama by Mike Leigh ? I saw The Descendants before, so I'll be considerate and remember the things I liked about it, because in all I liked it. After all, there are many many reviews praising The Descendants (I guess they didn't see it together with Another Year).

Surprise! George Cloonney can act! I think that's the first thing people who've seen the film thought. And yes, he can act (I am tempted but I will not compare him to Jim Broadbent). I think he's got a good role in this film (different from most parts he gets): father of two daughters who discovers his wife, who is dying, has cheated on him. Good place to start for any actor, he really makes the best of it. Most reviews want to make you think it's about him having to bond with the girls... I disagree. That isn't the problem. If he was an absent father before, it's not in the film. They have a hard time but their relationship isn't the problem, their relationship with the mother's action might be. One thing that is quite weak is how they cope with the feeling of actually losing her (it seems that's more important to find this person she's cheated with, rather than face the fact that she'll die). It makes me think of Genova... there's a real sense of loss and pain in Colin Firth and his girls, there isn't in George Clooney and his girls.*


Surprise! It's an adaptation! Yes, well, I didn't know it was a best-seller. Often I have problems with adaptations. They tend to want to include everything a reader of the book would like to see, when a film should be for a different audience entirely. I won't get into that now, because I will have a chance when I have time for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Back to The Descendants, yes, it works very well as a film. I thought it had weak things (like I mentioned the real grief of losing a mother/wife) but in all it was well structured. The fact that there's a dying wife situation and there's also the dying heritage situation helps it a lot. The heritage situation is clearly set and perfectly settled, it makes sense. Part of me would have been happy with just that conflict in a shorter film, but that's just me and my love for small films.

The rest is okay, the cinematography is nice, lovely Hawaiian landscapes, the music is Hawaiian... does everyone in Hawaii dress colourfully? If they do follow the Hollywood cliché, then it's fair enough. Nothing is extrodinary. Entertaining film.

*When did leading men started playing fathers?!

The Descendants