The Hanna Hammer

The New York Times did a photoshoot/video series where a bunch of actors dressed up as famous movie villiains. Rooney Mara dressed up as Alex DeLarge is kind of awesome. Ryan Gosling and George Clooney are in it too.  

Oscar season is finally upon us and with it comes a plethora of ‘Oscar bait’ films who all waited quietly through the explosion and cliche filled summer blockbuster season for their time to shine. ‘Oscar bait’ films can tend to be hit or miss, some of them turn out to be brilliant displays of film-making from old and new directors alike as the talents of the industry throw their best shots into the ring for a chance at that elusive gold statue. Others seem to be produced out of some ‘Oscar bait’ factory. They are well enough made yet lack a heart of any sort, made to try and win points with the academy rather than challenge or entertain the audience. George Clooney’s Oscar vehicle for the year, the Descendants, tends to dabble in both mentalities of Oscar film creation. While the movie was clearly made with heart and passion, both from director Alexander Payne and the cast, it also seems to lack in some key areas. Luckily these faults, stemming almost certainly from a script rewrite along its way to the screen, are small enough to not hamper what is good about the movie. But during the rat race that is Oscar season, those key flaws may hold this film back from achieving the greatness it was created for.

The Descendants shares elements of its plot with a sea of other family dramas out there. We have a father trying to raise and connect to teenage daughters who seem to be living in an entirely different reality, the unfaithful wife, and the ‘other man’ who her affair was with. Where the Descendants differentiates itself from the other dramas out there is the fact that Clooney’s wife is in a coma and has a life on a very specific timer, leaving him but precious few days to try and set things right in a life he ruined with caution and complacency. The plot is well paced and compelling, holding no secrets too long nor revealing its hand too early. Each beat of the Descendants carries with it powerful emotional weight, a weight whose momentum carries the movie from start to finish.

This momentum is also propelled along by the performances from the always great George Clooney and relative new-comer Shailene Woodley. Woodley suprisingly stands on her own with Clooney, never letting him just take over a scene where she is around. The dynamic between her and Clooney is one of the best things about the Descendants.There is weight and history behind their relationship. Whether they fight, bond, or laugh with one another it all feels warranted and deserved. The rest of the supporting cast does their job well enough though they are not given a whole terrible lot to work with. Sadly, speaking of the supporting cast forces me to bring up the primary gripe with the movie.

Somewhere along the way the Descendants was a great script, a movie surely to be among the top tier of Oscar nominees. It still might be, but then someone got a hold of that script and decided it wasn’t funny enough. So they added in the boyfriend Sid. If Sid weren’t in the movie it would be no different, hell, it would probably be a better movie. He is neither funny or compelling, appearing out of the background only to say something offensive and stupid or to get on Clooney’s nerves.His relationship with Clooney’s daughter is perplexing as they barely interact, have nothing in common, and his inclusion in this incredibly sensitive family adventure seems astronomically illogical. He adds nothing to the movie and could have been cut unnoticed. The younger of the two daughters was also corrupted by the perceived need for comedic relief. She cusses, says vulgar things, and flicks people off like an adult, but she is a kid. That is her joke, and it is a trope used so many times with child actors that it pains me every time I see it. It comes off not funny but lazy and makes it seem like the writer can’t write children so they write adults in children’s bodies and passes it off as comedy. Her serious moments are good and her acting is passable for a child actor, but her moments of comedy just do not deliver. It is a good thing then that the moments of ‘comedic relief’ are few and far between in an otherwise well handled and tightly written script.

Payne’s heavy direction for the Descendants also compliments the good parts of the script. Though the begging is voice over-heavy like his previous film About Schmidt, it eventually strays from the voice over exposition entirely after the first ten minutes. Every shot is handled with the appropriate weight and it really feels like his heart was in the movie. The shots of beautiful Hawaiian scenery also work splendidly alongside the mostly sad and serious plot line, making for an interesting visual and narrative dichotomy.

So in the end, the Descendants is an Oscar bait film which fits into both camps. It is certainly loaded with heart and care which a lot of these movies lack. These filmmakers could have put Clooney in the lead and then went about their motions and would have had a pretty successful movie, but Payne and the cast really put their all into it. Its a shame then that the comic relief plays out like some vestigial remnant of a past rewrite, a small yet key flaw which holds the Descendants back from greatness.

4/5