The Descendants on Arte: a George Clooney with subtlety (review)

This dramatic comedy won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for Alexander Payne, and a Golden Globe for its lead actor.

The Descendants can be seen this Wednesday evening on Arte (note, it is not available in streaming on Arte.TV). Released in cinemas in 2011, Alexander Payne’s feature film (Winter Break, Nebraska) had received five Oscar nominations, but had suffered the wave The Artistcontenting himself with the adapted scenario. He also won two Golden Globes, for best film and best dramatic actor.

Synopsis: In Honolulu, his wife Elizabeth having fallen into a coma following a boating accident, Matt King, a lawyer tasked by his family with selling family land (the last virgin tropical beaches of the islands, inherited from his Hawaiian ancestors), takes care of his two daughters whom he had abandoned, then confronts his wife’s lover during a family getaway to the island of Kauai.

The criticism of The Descendants :

Alexander Payne’s characters are often at a crossroads, taking the most tortuous of them to take stock of their lives. This was the case for Warren in Mr Schmidtby Miles Raymond in Sidewaysand today from Matt King.

After the flat settings of the Midwest suiting Schmidt’s morose mood and the wine valley of California intoxicating Raymond, it is the turn of Hawaii to serve as the backdrop for the hero’s intimate journey. The choice of this heavenly destination is not trivial: we act less serious in floral shirts and we do not run in the same way with flip-flops on our feet – a situation which also gives rise to a hilarious scene.

Payne likes to play on contrasts, it’s his elegant way of saying serious things in a seemingly casual tone. The frequent comparison that we make between his cinema and that of Wes Anderson is even more evident in The Descendantswhere George Clooney plays a lunar individual who clumsily tries to put his life back in order. The actor’s subtly offbeat interpretation does not fail to evoke the existential comedy of the characters played by Bill Murray or Owen Wilson in Anderson’s films.

Like the latter, finally, Payne is obsessed with questions of legacy and identity, which The Descendants works with restraint. It is through veiled or coded words and through initiatory rituals (observing a majestic natural site) that Matt King will reclaim his family history and pass it on to his daughters.

The Descendantsby Alexander Payne. With George Clooney, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Shailene Woodley. 115 minutes.