The Descendants - Blu-ray Review

Details: By Frank Wilkins; 19 November 2011

{2jtab: Movie Review}

The Descendants - Movie Review

In his characteristic way of illustrating the sharp contrasts of flawed people dealing with the most difficult situations, Alexander Payne adapts the Kaui Hart Hemmings novel, The Descendants by emphasizing the comical, devastating, and revealing moments that often occur all in the same breath. In About Schmidt it was Jack Nicholson’s cantankerous retiree. It was Matthew Broderick’s resentful teacher in Election. And in Sideways, it was Paul Giamatti’s middle-aged bumbling oenophile. This time around, in The Descendants, George Clooney’s Matt King gets the Payne portraiture of a man - neither hero nor anti-hero - left to grapple with some of the most difficult decisions in his life.

Matt is a middle-aged wealthy landowner living in Hawaii who confesses via voiceover to being a somewhat detached father to his two young daughters Alexandra (Shaileen Woodley) and Scottie (newcomer Amara Miller). While he admits to falling into the fortuitous luck of being the descendant of a white missionary who married a Hawaiian Princess (and subsequently left him and numerous cousins hundreds of acres of prime ocean-front Island property), Matt soon discovers that not all luck is of the happy variety when his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) falls into a coma after a tragic boating accident. Having never been too involved in family matters, Matt must now embark on a journey through unexplored territory by tending to his dying wife’s needs, while also reacquainting himself with his daughters. But this is an Alexander Payne movie. Surely things aren’t quite this simple, right?

Dovetailing into the journey of Matt’s attempt to reconnect with his daughters, is another one involving the family’s trek to Kauai on the hunt for Elizabeth’s unwitting lover, real estate agent Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard). Matt, so buried in his law practice, only learns of his wife’s infidelity via Alexandra’s confession of her prior knowledge of the affair. Not knowing who he is, where they’ll find him, or what they’ll do when they get there, the Kings set out to confront Speers hoping to gain some sort of closure or unifying gratification before they’re forced to pull the plug on the comatose Elizabeth.

Business matters also loom heavy in the form of the family trust, a vast parcel of waterfront land, which is set to expire soon. Naturally, many of Matt’s relatives and fellow benefactors are champing at the bit for the sale of the land to take place, while members of the local community want the land to remain in its natural state.

Payne’s brilliance with the way he unfurls his story comes from the same place he’s always found success: extracting unexpected humor from within the irony of normal people doing despicable things. But here he has a secret weapon in the form of George Clooney, who has that enigmatic ability to enhance any movie he's in. Like many of the classic actors from the golden age of film - Bogart, Stewart, and Gable - Clooney stands for something grander than his given role. Yet, in spite of his bigger than life persona, he always manages to ground his performance in reality. No different here. Completely aware of the failings beneath his Matt’s flower-shirted façade, Clooney displays a dark charm, tinged with a sense of self-loathing. It’s what makes Clooney approachable as an actor and loveable as a character.

Woodley, star of TV’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager, is excellent here as well. Her Alexandra’s relationship with her dad is one a lot of kids will relate to from their own experiences. She loves her dad, but looks at him as the childish one in the relationship and has always felt she needed to take on a parenting relationship with him. Woodley also expertly handles the multi-colored shadings of Alex’s barrage of mixed feelings around her mother that are at once incredulous, angry, worried, sad, and freaked out. Woodley digs deep and delivers a polished, multi-faceted performance.

A strong sense of place has always been a hallmark of an Alexander Payne film, and it becomes even more central in The Descendants. Because of the way the Hawaiian setting is juxtaposed against the King family’s struggles, the visuals take on a major role in the film. But as is typical of Payne’s visual style, the film is distinctly unadorned, allowing the characters and their personal complications to carry the narrative forward.

The Descendants is a beautiful film, both visually and emotionally. Near perfect at times. Though it’s one of Payne’s most straightforward and approachable films, the rewards lie within the rich fabric of human beings interacting in a minefield of complicated moral quandaries. It’s not only a display of intricate grace, but also one of complex awkwardness.

{2jtab: Film Details}

MPAA Rating: R for language including some sexual references.
Director: Alexander Payne
Writer: Alexander Payne; Nat Faxon
Cast: George Clooney; Shaileen Woodley; Matthew Lillard; Amara Miller
Genre: Drama
Tagline: The Descendants
Memorable Movie Quote: "Give them enough money so they can do something, but so much they do nothing."
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Official Site: www.foxsearchlight.com/thedescendants
Release Date: November 18, 2011
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: March 13, 2012

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, the film stars George Clooney as an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-establish his relationship with his daughters after his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki.

{2jtab: Blu-ray Review}

The Descendants - Blu-ray Review

Component Grades
Movie		Blu-ray Disc


Blu-ray Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - March 13, 2012
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD); Digital copy (on disc); DVD copy
Region Encoding: Locked to Regon A

Presented from 20th Century Fox/Fox Searchlight, The Descendants’s 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is a sun-kissed tropical affair. Textures are razor sharp with no visible edge enhancement hanging about and details in clothing, faces, and locations are near fine. It’s impossible to watch this film and not want to live in Hawaii or give Clooney a bear hug. Outdoor locations are fantastically realized with natural light and other post-production effects that were toned down in favor of natural elements. Colors aren’t bold by choice (which makes the vibe a bit laid back), but what does pop are the dewy blades of grass and blazing reds of tropical sunsets. The sound, presented in a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, is high on dialogue and low on overall ambience but manages to deliver a compelling and natural soundscape for the picture to float upon. Sure, it isn’t powerful enough to overcome the senses but is enough to leave you with an impression of beach life. The disc also includes Dolby Digital 5.1 French and Spanish dubs, and English SDH and Spanish subtitles.

Supplements:

Commentary:

And what does this Golden Globe winner and Academy Award nominated film get for a commentary? Nada. Why not? Crickets answer.

Special Features:

The Descendants’s special features are a bit on the flaky side of things. Whether it is watching Alexander Payne make omelets for his crew or praising the fun of having George Clooney on set, the supplementals just don’t make up for the lack of serious commentary. The only really thorough look into the film we get is a relaxed conversation between Payne and Clooney and mostly they reminisce about ER and other films. Two deleted scenes, short and cut for momentum’s sake, kick things off. Clooney gets his own featurette and, as expected, everyone loves him. There is a featurette on life working under Alexander Payne and, truly, he sounds like an actor’s director and a solid man. A featurette about the family the movie and the book was based on gets a look and the flavor of Hawaii is documented, too. The rest – featuring a very light look at the casting of the film – is mainly filler.