George Clooney is a chameleon. A man of many moods, many affects, many styles, he slides from role to role as a chameleon does from color to color. He's Matt King in "The Descendants," which opens today, and he offers a low-key, rich portrayal of a man caught between his ancestors and his relatives.
He's a wealthy Honolulu lawyer. His ancestors are descendants of Hawaiian royalty who owned a huge, beautiful swatch of oceanfront land on Kauai. Many of the large family have vacation homes adjacent to the beach. Developers want to buy the land, a natural site for hotels, condos, casinos and so on. Lawyer King has the final say-so, and he's waffling. He understands why his less-affluent relatives want to sell. He has a conscience that keeps telling him that his family lucked into the property and it should remain pristine and beautiful for people to enjoy, not to be bulldozed and paved for the benefit of a relative few.
But even as the decision crunch nears, he has other problems. His wife, injured in a boating accident, is on life support with no hope of regaining any of her faculties. A decision on taking her off the life-giving machines is imminent.
There are two children, a 10-year-old, Scottie (a solid Amara Miller) and a 17-year-old, Alexandra (a brilliant Shailene Woodley), who has been at boarding school. King has been mostly a semi-absentee father, and he is forced to meet the children while preparing them for the death of their mother. Scottie is confused and distraught; Alex is furious at her mother, and reluctantly tells her father that Mom has been having an affair.
The rest of the bottom of King's world falls out.
He's hurt, and he's angry, feeling betrayed and filled with all the other emotions that a cuckold will feel. Clooney handles it brilliantly, in low-key style, remembering he's trying to protect two children who are almost strangers. But they're children of today, and they both know and understand a lot more than their dad did when he was their age. Both girls are just terrific, and so is Alex's friend, Sid (Nick Krause), a shlub of a teenager who hides a considerable amount of wisdom as he helps Alex keep things together.
Payne, also responsible for "Sideways" and "About Schmidt," has a sterling touch with average people facing sudden upheaval. Nat Faxon and Jim Rash share the screenplay credit with Payne; Kaui Hart Hemmings wrote the original novel.
He also brings out rare bits of ability from the secondary actors in the cast. Krause is a fine example, and so are Matthew Lillard, as a real-estate salesman who was King's wife's lover, and Judy Greer as his wife, who brilliantly illuminates a few things that most directors would ignore, or never think about.
"Descendants" is a gripping, fascinating movie that will be a factor when the awards season begins.
Descendants opens today on numerous screens
— Joe