Academy Awards Catchup – The Descendants

15th March 2012

Welcome to the first of a two part post belatedly discussing two of the biggest films at this years Academy Awards. Having finally managed to catch them at the end of their, generously extended, cinema run last week, The Descendants and The Artist, have been playing on my mind.

Depending on your views on The Oscars as an accurate or relevant score card for modern cinema, these films and their collective parade of nominations (which are, naturally, not limited to those little golden Oscar statues) could present tricky viewing, particularly when it comes to objectivity. Knowing a film has been critically and publicly lauded beforehand can have several effects on its viewing; you could blindly agree with what others have said or actively depart from collective opinion and find fault where it may, or may not, exist just to be perceived as having your own mind. A logical option is to watch the movie on its merits and try to ignore anything, good or bad, said by anyone else but, whilst that sounds perfectly well reasoned, once other voices have crept into your mind it can be difficult to reconcile them with personal opinion.

The Descendants and The Artist represent for me two polar opposites when it comes to this problem. Both movies received almost unequivocal high praise, with no dissenting critical voices, and so perhaps we’re lead to conclude that both movies are amazing works of cinema. I would contend that this is only a half truth; one of these movies lives up to its praise whilst the other is staggeringly overhyped, forcing me to wonder where I was when everyone else was drinking the Kool-Aid.

The Descendants, from writer and director Alexander Payne, opens with a water skiing accident in Hawaii, one we are thankfully not shown as to do so would have been superfluous. The story follows Matt King, played by George Clooney, coming to terms with the aftermath of this event; his terminally comatose wife (Elizabeth), his family upheaval, the discovery of his wife’s infidelity, and a looming multimillion dollar business deal. For anyone that would be somewhat of a handful, but Matt King has to also contend with the fact he has been seemingly absent from his life. He remains bafflingly clueless as to the goings on within his family and his marriage, not suspecting that his wife was in love with another man (played in a surprisingly fantastic turn by Matthew Lillard) and on the verge of leaving him, or that his daughter wasn’t speaking to his wife0 because she was aware of it all. Even his best friends appear to be complicit, causing me to wonder what the hell he’d been doing with his life up to this point.

Elizabeth’s accident, King’s realisation about her affair, and having to be the active parental figure all force him to reassess his life, presenting him with a wake up call to be present in it. This in turn effects the sort of person he chooses to be. Whilst it might sound like quite a lot happens in this movie it certainly doesn’t feel like it, The Descendants gently carries us along, equally surprised as King as events unfold. I’m a big fan of the fact we never meet Elizabeth, her part in this movie is from a coma-bed, and we see her from the perspective of the other characters. This kind of story telling is highly effective, engaging the viewer into the lives of the characters and allowing them to infer certain details. Successful movies show 2 and 2 and let the audience make 4, if you labour a point, effectively showing someone write on a blackboard 2 + 2 = 4, you’re story won’t be anywhere near as effective.

The relationship that builds between King and his daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) as they work together, both to investigate Elizabeth’s lover and to form a new familial structure for the younger daughter, is well crafted and unfolds beautifully. Clooney, whose style of acting I’m not often a fan of as he is too frequently indistinguishable in his calm aloof swagger, is here nigh on irreproachable. He’s also backed up by a very accomplished supporting cast in Nick Krause, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, and Michael Ontkean, whose appearances are carefully woven throughout the narrative.

For a movie set in Hawaii, The Descendants eschews the normal portrayal of a highly saturated island of wonder in favour of a respectably muted, slightly desaturated, palate of colour thus giving the whole movie a distinctive, but not overbearing, visual tone. As Clooney’s character says in the movie, ‘just because you live in Hawaii doesn’t mean you live in paradise’ and we’re certainly not treated to the overblown Hawaii on display in the likes of Lost.

Tinged with comedy, this moving and rewarding film was deserving of the praise that it received in its Academy Awards nominations; shockingly though it only won for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay. Clooney was robbed of a Best Actor award (I’ll qualify this when I discuss The Artist in part 2). The movie isn’t flawless but it’s human, and as such it’s flaws are merely indicative of an imperfect nature. It was great to watch a film that was deserving of its praise, it won’t be for everyone – it’s certainly not fast paced – but having said that, the majority of people should come away having been engaged by the story.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 in which I discuss the other big hitter at the 2012 Academy Awards, The Artist.

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