With some of his performances, George Clooney has been known for hitting the ball out of the ballpark. A two-time Academy Award Nominee for Best Actor in a Leading Performance (2007’s Michael Clayton, 2009’s Up In The Air), Clooney is poised for his third nomination with 2011’s The Descendants. Successful as both a supporting actor (Academy Award Winner – 2005’s Syriana) as for as work behind the camera (Academy Award Nominee for Best Director – 2005’s Good Night and Good Luck), Clooney is at his best when the movie revolves around his performance as a leading man. This is precisely what happens in this movie.

Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt) waited seven years to get back behind the camera after earning an Academy Award for Best Director while winning the Oscar for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay for Sideways. If there was any rust, you certainly couldn’t tell. The Descendants has a certain ebb and flow that only the most adept storyteller can portray on the silver screen. While I have yet to see Sideways (it is on my must-see list and is a movie I am confident I will enjoy), I was a big fan of About Schmidt. And I am equally as big of a fan of The Descendants. While it failed to live up to expectations (mainly because I wanted it to be as good if not better than Michael Clayton or Up In The Air – two of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen), it was still good. The more I try to separate it from these two movies, the more I can appreciate it.

Clooney is at the top of his game. He will earn his third Best Lead Actor Academy Award Nomination for his role as Matt King, a descendant of one of Hawaii’s first white land-owning families who now holds the controlling share of his extended family’s estate. Matt has so many family members that they must wear name tags at family gatherings. Many of his cousins are in over their heads in debt but know they will soon be very wealthy when Matt decides which bidding firm he will sell the family’s vast tract of virgin forest on Kauai to. Though he has seven years until he absolutely needs to decide, his extended family has been breathing down his neck to sell quickly. The proposals show various models of how the virgin forest on Kauai will be converted into tourist attractions and condominium developments. Though he has known for most of his adult life that the sale will net him millions of dollars, he has been prudent with his money. Though he lives in a very nice house in a relatively affluent neighborhood, his lifestyle is not lavish. Though his home has its own pool and he is a country club member, Matt does not live on more than his job as a Honolulu-based lawyer can afford. He wants to give his daughters “enough money so they can do something, but so much they do nothing.”

The plot of the story is twofold. The first is the factors that revolve around Matt’s decision on what to do with the land. Some people in the town tell him not to sell because the area will become much too congested. His cousins, led by Hugh (Beau Bridges – The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Hotel New Hampshire), tell him to sell it to the largest bidder regardless of their future plans with the land and how it will impact the lives of those who live there. Then there are their personal feelings toward the land. He has memories of the land in its present state and is uncertain about what he wants to let go of.

The movie’s second and more important component is that when we meet Matt, he is in an emergency room at a local hospital. Elizabeth, his thrill-seeking wife, had been in a boating accident and is now in a coma. The doctors have told Matt that she will not come out of the coma. Elizabeth has a living will instructing the doctors to remove her from life support. Matt has to tell his daughters, Elizabeth’s parents, and all of their friends the news firsthand and let them all know the procedures for saying goodbye to her. This would be difficult enough as it is, but Matt is then told that his wife has been having an affair. Though he had been faithful to his wife throughout their marriage, Matt had often been so overwhelmed with work that he may have neglected her needs as well as the needs of his daughters. Though protocol would infer that Matt would become enraged with his wife, the truth of the matter is not in a position to defend herself. So Matt must put his hurtful feelings to the side and not dishonor Elizabeth by ruining her good name.

The best part about Clooney’s character is that he lacks all the answers. We are so used to seeing a cool and collected Clooney on screen. Whether he is leading a group of men while they rob multiple Las Vegas casinos (Oceans 11) or is the person companies turn to fire employees they are too scared to fire on their own (Up In The Air), Clooney often plays characters who are in control of the situation. He made sure that was not the case in The Descendants. Whether he’s trying to play out in his head what he will say to the man who was having an affair with his wife or asking his older daughter Julie (Judy Greer – 27 Dresses, Love and Other Drugs) how to deal with his youngest daughter Scottie (Amara Miller), Clooney makes it a point to come across as a man who lacks certainty. Seeing him play a character with such vulnerabilities is somewhat unique.

Plot 8/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry8 /10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing  8/10
Cinematography 10/10 (who would have thought extraordinary Hawaii could be made to look so ordinary)
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 7.5/10
Universal Relevance 7.5/10
84.5%

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