Review: The Descendants

     Perhaps it is because I was raised in the midwest, but I am never able to take movies set in Hawaii, or some other tropical paradise, seriously. I always think that no matter how serious the problems of the characters can't be all that bad, they live in Hawaii after all. I always assume that if a movie takes place in Hawaii it's because the people making the movie want to take a vacation. The opening narration of The Descendants (2011) addresses this issue. We're told that the people of Hawaii have their fair share of problems, that their cancer is just as bad as anywhere else. This narration coupled with footage of Hawaii's homeless population attempts to lend credence to this sentiment, but the film fails to maintain this sentiment throughout the remainder of the story.

     The movie begins in a hospital, where we find the Matt King, played by George Clooney, at the side of his wife who is in a coma as the result of a boating accident. Now with his wife incapacitated, King has to truly take care of children for the first time in years. We also learn that King is a wealthy land-owner in Hawaii (his life must be so hard; see why I have trouble taking this seriously?) who holds the controlling share of a large stretch of valuable property left to him by his ancestor, a Hawaiian King (which he and his family are the descendants of, get it?), in a trust. The trust is going to soon be dissolved, and King and his family stand to make a fortune by selling the land . Some of the family wants to keep it, but most want to sell, and ultimately the decision is up to King. 

     King soon learns that his wife is never going to come out of her coma, and that her living will dictates that she be taken off of life support. Knowing that his wife is soon going to die, King retrieves his trouble-making daughter from boarding school. After telling her that her mother is going to die, she tells him that she had been cheating on him with another man. King becomes obsessed with finding out more about this man, and ultimately deciding that he should tell him that his wife is dying so he can at least say goodbye. King quickly learns through his friend that the man's name is Brian Speer, a successful real estate agent. Later, King also discovers that Speer is related to the developer he was leaning towards selling the land to, and Speer would be the one to sell the land to individual companies, and as such would profit immensely if King were to sell to that developer.

     All of this sounds like serious business, but the majority of the cast is pretty light-hearted about everything. It seems the majority of the cast is there to provide comic relief, which is welcome in such an otherwise heavy plot. However, the amount of attempts at comedy muddle the film's tone. I wanted to see the characters deal more with the death of the mother, which for most of the film is pushed aside to focus on finding her paramour. There are too many strong stories happening here at once, and they are all so intertwined it's difficult to believe any of the actors emotions about any of them. I think that's what bugs me most about this film. Except for a couple scenes, there are no strong emotions, especially from Clooney, whose performance is awfully muted despite being the central figure of the film.

     Ultimately, I was frustrated with this movie. Technically, the happy ending makes it a comedy, but the comedy in it falls terribly flat, and the drama is overwhelmingly heavy. However, the script does a good job of balancing all of the elements evenly, and the cinematography is gorgeous (but much of the credit there goes to the film's co-star: the state of Hawaii), but I think this would've been a much better film if King's wife had been dead from the start of the film, perhaps for a while. This would've deepened the characters focus on the affair, rather than having it split so many ways.

Rating: 5/10 - Ambivalent