The Descendants
The Descendants might be about the most perfect movie I've seen this year. It boasts an incredibly compelling story, transcendent performances by a great cast, gorgeous camera work... it has it all. In fact, it might be the best movie I've seen in the last three years. Of course, I could very well be getting ahead of myself. But still, you get the point. It's a movie that is absolutely worth seeing. No doubt about it.
The story follows the emotional roller coaster ride of Goerge Clooney's Matt King- a Hawaiian workaholic attorney. Why the roller coaster? King's wife was involved in a boating accident that has left her in a coma that she likely will not recover from. This alone would be horrific enough, but he also later learns that his wife had been cheating on him; something he was completely unaware of. Adding to all this tumult is the weight of a particularly heavy decision that must be made soon: King is the sole trustee in charge of deciding the fate of a massive chunk of pristine Hawaiian land. The state is forcing the dissolution of the trust preserving the land and the impending sale- if that's the route King follows- stands to have incredibly lucrative consequences for he and his cousins. Of course, there's also the chance that King won't sell the land off to some resort-developer at all- a decision that would please the vast majority of Hawaiians, especially native Hawaiians. So, King has a lot on his mind, including how he's going to manage being a responsible parent to his two young daughters, Alexandra (a magnificent Shailene Woodley) and Scottie (similarly great Amara Miller). King is, after all, a workaholic "back-up parent", how can he manage to take over full-time? Heck, how can he manage to even get through the next several days with all this rolling around his head?
King's journey to find an answer to that question resides at the center of the movie. How can he do it all? And what is he going to do? And while there aren't many surprises, I'm not going to say much more about the plot. It's best to just watch unfold before you. Or rather, it's just better to allow yourself to get sucked in by the riveting tale. There are no frills here. No special effects. No twists and turns. It's just exceptional storytelling and acting at its very best. And you- if you're like me- will hardly be able to pull yourself away from the screen. This is in large part due to the acting clinic delivered by George Clooney. He absolutely inhabits the role of King; disappearing into the tumultuous sea of emotions completely. Clooney is to some, the last true movie star; at least in the sense of Hollywood's Golden Era of the 1950s and 60s. It would seem that it would be difficult for George to completely melt away into Matt, especially since King isn't much more than a regular guy- albeit an extremely wealthy one. But Clooney fades away and the complete character of Matt King emerges, and with that, an emotional, heartfelt, and for lack of a better word, real story ensues.
The reality of it may be the most compelling part of the film. It forces you to empathize, particularly if you've ever been anywhere near any of these situations. It forces the audience to grapple with the complex situations on hand. King isn't saying this is how you handle your life falling to pieces around you, he's saying, this is how I'm doing it, for better or worse. And through the process you see a character come into sharper view. Actually growth is evident through most characters- especially Woodley's Alexandra. I should point out that while the reality of it is nice, it wasn't too real. Not in the sense that it was- say- a documentary. There were just enough fictional situations included to allow you to realize that you were watching a story. But still, the emotions were real, and the characters were realistic.
There's not much more I can say. My only wish was that they either downplayed or took a little of the edge off of Nick Krause's Sid character (Alexandra's best friend... boyfriend?). He may be a bit too crass, a bit too idiotic. But otherwise, I can't find any flaws with the movie. It was a great experience, a once-every-few-years type of movie. Kudos, Alexander Payne, while I thought your film, Sideways, was overrated and About Schmidt was pretty good but not great, this may prove to be your masterpiece. And a hell of a masterpiece it is.
Grade: A+
No comments:
Post a Comment