Agenda Movie Club: The Descendants

The Descendants

Alexander Payne

2011

What has happened to Alexander Payne? I mean that in only a good way. But I still wonder.

He made Citizen Ruth and Election, but very good, but dark, biting satires. And then… About Schmidt, Sideways, and now his best film, The Descendants. These are movies filled with humanity. Gone is the bitter irony, and we’re left with real people (men, generally, though not exclusively) facing real life. It can be quirky, and it’s definitely not always bright, but the meanness is gone.

Obviously Clooney is very good here. He does a nice job of being expressive without mugging. Everyone else does fine work, but he’s the center. That seems apparent enough.

Some other things I thought while I was watching this:

– I like how Payne has made the location of the story almost a character in the story. Hawaii here, wine country in Sideways, the Midwest– maybe to a lesser extent– in About Schmidt. This is interesting to me and gives more texture to a movie.

– I appreciated how unattractive he made Clooney’s coma-bound wife look. People don’t look good in hospital beds, and they especially don’t look good when they haven’t been conscious for a long while. But you usually don’t see people looking all that bad when they’re in the hospital in the movies.

– You can see here how Beau and Jeff Bridges are definitely brothers.

– I still can’t really see Judy Greer without thinking of Kitty, but she’s doing a pretty good job of seeming normal lately.

– How much I love my wife.

Also, yes, I did cry a bit. This is quite a good movie.