In the The Descendants the line between comedy and pathos forms a perfect tightrope that has stretched through all of Alexander Payne’s films from “Election” to “Sideways.” George Clooney, Hawaiian shirt and boat shoes in tow, faces a dilemma: his self-professed role as “backup parent” is about to swiftly change. His wife is suddenly in a coma and he’s got 10- and 17-years-old daughters to quickly figure out and nourish. In the meantime, as lawyer and principal heir to a potentially fortune-yielding plot of land, he’s also dealing with ambitious cousins who want to sell. Since they’re practically strangers he deals with them at a careful distance.
And because it’s Payne and Clooney, you find yourself knowing that despite the Hawaiian shirts and native music on the soundtrack that neither will do anything of the sort of corny slapstick to which a lesser director and actor would easily succumb. Before long, any physical comedy here will be perfectly balanced by a higher order of mature human introspection.
Not that there aren’t, as in all of Payne’s films (even the equally sober-subject terrain of About Schmidt) a generous portion of funny scenes and lines throughout. Payne is so assured in his comedy because he goes after life’s little details with uncanny casualness. His contagious confidence in his characters seems to arise out of an all-knowing perceptiveness regarding their often offbeat reactions Before we know it, another, more grating problem arises for Clooney and his total attention to solving it in the light of his greater difficulties, is the stuff of great comedy here. And ultimately, convincing drama.
Clooney (an Oscar nomination seems likely) plays so well off the 17 -year-old daughter (a superb Shailene Woodley), her preposterous yet totally believable slacker boyfriend (Nick Krause), his amusingly tough but clueless father-in-law (Robert Forrester, looking more like Robert Blake everyday), and his laid-back nemesis of a cousin (Beau Bridges). Distinctive veteran character actor Judy Greer plays a pivotal small role with unnerving acuteness.
Pulling the comedic out of the serious and vice-versa is no easy task. We like to think our often absurd daily lives have a rich poignancy despite their utter messiness. In Payne’s films our best wishes are persuasively confirmed.
9 luaus (out of 10)