Every year there are a couple of year-end movies that seem to get nominated for every award known to man but aren’t really deserving of all the high praise; they’re overrated, to say the least. Alexander Payne is a fine filmmaker who has given us two modern comedy classics, Sideways and Election. But The Descendants, his first feature film in seven years, is not in the league of those two films. It’s a good movie, with standout acting, gorgeous photography, and a handful of memorable scenes, but the film ultimately rings a little hollow in the end. It’s fun while it lasts, but it ultimately just doesn’t add up to much.
Alexander Payne Has Been Missed, But This Film Doesn't Match the Quality of Sideways and Election
George Clooney plays a distant husband and father who suddenly has to come to terms with his ailing wife, who’s in a coma after suffering a traumatic boating injury, and his two daughters, who he’s never had to really be there for before. He discovers that his wife is never going to wake up, and, to make matters worse, he discovers she’s been cheating on him for over a year with another much younger man.
The Descendants is very much an Alexander Payne movie. His main trademark has to be telling very human stories that are mired in surprising comedic moments and plenty of sadness. This film gives Clooney a role just as rich as the one he got to play in the equally funny (but better) Up in the Air, from 2009. Payne has always been strong when it comes to casting, and, while he passed over Clooney in favor of Thomas Haden Church for Sideways, he passes over bigger-name actors he surely could have gotten for the “other man” character, and instead gives us Matthew Lillard, in his first meaty role since Scream fifteen years ago.
Too Many Flaws and Story Issues Keep This Movie From Working on an Emotional Level
But while Election and Sideways, in the end, ring true, The Descendants never gels as authentic. The first problem is that the character of Clooney’s wife, stuck in a coma she’ll never awake from, always feels too much like a gimmick; in fact without her boating accident, there really wouldn’t be a movie here. She’s shouted at, pissed on, and humiliated for most of the film’s running time, but we’re never able to really judge her, because we never got to meet her. Secondly, the major plot involving Clooney’s quest to find his wife’s younger lover takes up way too much of the movie’s running time, and ultimately feels like something out of a Lifetime TV movie. Third, the daughter’s best friend Sid, played well by Nick Krause, unfortunately doesn’t really add much substance to the movie other than comic relief. And finally, did anyone else notice how much narration there is in the film’s opening ten minutes?
If anyone else had directed The Descendants, and if it hadn’t been pegged as a major Oscar contender since last September, with everyone and their grandmother talking about how amazing it is, there might have been a better time to be had here. It’s a good film, and it’s definitely worth seeing. But is it in the league of Election and Sideways? Is it one of the year’s best films? No. The Descendants has its moments, but it’s overrated and isn’t worthy of all this exaggerated praise.
