Movie #4 - The Descendants

I'm on a mission to see as many of the Oscar nominated Best Films as possible before the Oscars next week.  Having already seen Moneyball, Hugo and Midnight in Paris, I decided it was time to get my butt in gear and go see this.  Soon to be followed by The Artist, which I reckon is looking ever more likely to win.  Then it'll be a trip to the video store for The Help and Tree of Life.  Unless they come out soon, I'm probably going to miss Warhorse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, but that's okay by me.

I'm actually kind of surprised that this movie is up for Best Film.  It didn't quite have that "wow" factor for me.  It's a quality film, with quality performances, but there just isn't that decisive X factor to push it to Best Picture Oscar glory.  I think the screenplay stands a much better chance of winning.  Alexander Payne has track record, winning for Sideways a few years ago (well deserved) and he also wrote the brilliantly black comedy Election.  He has done a good job on this, although it is admittedly another in his suite of sad sack fellas with a darker view on life.  Don't mistake this for an uplifting, feelgood family drama as one of my friend's wife did although they weren't that disappointed that it wasn't.

The movie opens with the unseen water-skiing accident of Elizabeth King, wife of Matt (George Clooney) and mother of two girls Scottie and teenager Alex (what's with the boy's names?).  We quickly realise that with Elizabeth in a coma, wrokaholic Matt is not really that capable of looking after Scottie and Alex and his business affairs.  The accident makes Matt realise that he wants to be a better husband and father, but he doesn't really know where to start and Elizabeth's coma means they can't talk about it.  A revelation about Elizabeth from Alex sends Matt into an even bigger spin, and the movie explores his rather unique approach to dealing with this with the help, and hindrance at times, of his daughters.

Mr Clooney is pretty fantastic, playing against type for once as a man who is just lost and struggling to find his identity and place in the world, instead of the confident ladies man.  This will forever be remembered as the movie that revealed George's big secret - he really can't run!  This scene caused quite a few giggles in the area around me as George awkwardly manoeuvres his way to a friend's house for a confrontation.  Unless he was doing it on purpose....sure, what a great actor!  He is good, as is newcomer Shailene Woodley as teenage tearaway Alex who becomes an unexpected ally to her dad.  The portrayal of the family relationships are much more realistic than you normally see up on the big screen, with no glossy little angels or pointlessly rebellious teens who learn their lesson.  There isn't really a big feelgood ending, or a really sad ending either.  It just leaves you to ponder whether you have chosen the right things to focus your time on or whether you, like Matt, could get caught in a situation of realising what you should have been doing, too late.

This movie is well worth a watch if you like mature, complex relationship dramas.  Although the Hawaiian setting is another stunning character in the movie, so it makes a good travelogue as well if you just like pretty pictures.  I'd give this a 3.5 out of 5.