Having cemented his place as the king of the American indie black comedy with Election, About Schmidt and Sideways, director Alexander Payne moves into more tender terrain with this tale of a man dealing with his wife’s critical coma following a boating accident.
Hawaiian lawyer Matt King (George Clooney) has always been the backup parent, so the challenge of shepherding his two wayward daughters, a ten-year-old emotional tornado and a snarky teenage tearaway, through this traumatic development is not a breeze. In addition, he is faced with secrets his wife may have kept from him.
While the subject is serious, the touch is light, and supporting characters offer plenty of space for comedy, from bleak humour to sassy dialogue and even slapstick (is Clooney capable of running in a non-comical fashion?).
Eliciting genuine audience warmth at its Toronto and London Film Festival screenings, The Descendants has something to say about familial responsibility as a force that reaches not only forward, but back to the generations of the past, and is boosted by a gorgeous soundtrack of music performed by some of the state’s most acclaimed performers.