Film Impressions

REVIEW: The Descendants (2)

MOONEY CLOONEY

Keeping his sexiest man alive image in mind, it’s hard to imagine George Clooney playing an ordinary man.  That he does it with admirable grace and lack of show-off histrionics, explains all those best actor nominations and wins.

Alexander Payne’s The Descendants (based based on Kaui Hart Hemmings' novel) is also a family drama of the kind that is not made too often in Hollywood, which probably also explains the high level praise that it has got from critics in the West. It must be a relief to just see normal people on screen for a change, not people flying around doing heroic things.

REVIEW: The Descendants

IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVING YOUR FAMILY

Alexander Payne's The Descendants reinforces my suspicion that Hollywood is going all mushy on us with two-hour-long family tearjerkers featuring good-looking stars and gorgeous locations gratuitously passed off as grand entertainment. Barring George Clooney's fighting effort to salvage his character from the slush, this film is actually a not-so-cleverly camouflaged sack of cliches played out in picture-postcard Hawaii. 

Clooney's Matt King has a mid-life crisis of Shakespearean proportions, or so we must imagine. In his opening monologue he alludes to his own weaknesses of character. But his problems are far greater than his indiscretions -- we'll never find out how bad those were, because they don't figure in Payne's worldview. He's just a confused, clumsy, handsome lawyer who also happens to have family land worth millions and millions of dollars which he must concur with his cousins to sell.

And a wife in coma.