Nearly the entire cast is portrayed as vulgar, vitriolic, eccentric and depressive - - its adults and their children - - and ironically, the longest smile and the film’s most thoughtfully happy instance comes complements of Elizabeth King just moments before she succumbs to her accident-inducing coma. The adults lead a lazy existence with a foundation based in wealth management as they don shorts, flip-flops and casual wear in corporate settings while the children harbor an entitlement that they feel they can hurt those around them by texting injurious messages to fellow classmates, flipping people off, engaging in excessive name-calling, entangling themselves into their parents’ affairs, etc. Their respective futures appear destined for failure unlike those of their forebears who struggled and triumphed in their endeavors and provided the fruits over which the contemporary King clan labors. The film’s most potentially authentic emotional moment appears and in Payne-ish fashion, is crushed in a swell of sarcasm and obscenity when Troy (surfing guru, Laird Hamilton) directly connected to Elizabeth’s accident, tries to pass along his warmest regards and nearly looks as if he’s going to break down when King and his youngest daughter, Scottie (Amara Miller), brush him off. The authenticity of this moment is intensely and dramatically palpable yet is immediately destroyed giving way to scenes of relentlessly bad parenting, inappropriate slang words for a woman’s vagina (repeatedly uttered by young girls no less) and introductions of characters so incredibly kooky and ill-mannered that their presence seems like an excuse for a chuckle. Therein lies the double entendre of the film’s title - - THE DESCENDANTS - - whereas the King family descends from ancestral Hawaiian royalty, Payne charts a coarse course into a contemptibly immature realm which consumes all who are connected with the King fortune.
Decay and deterioration of communication (paralleled with the decomposition of Elizabeth’s mortal body and soul) exists between family members and dear friends which seem to serve as recurring punchlines rather than sharp examinations of human nature. Sensitive familial ties as fragile as these literally hang by a thread which seem destined to snap at any moment. THE DESCENDENTS is over-crowded with so many dysfunctional moments that it’s any wonder the King family finds any resolution to the number of problems which swirl around them and are yet to appear in their fictional futures. They can rest easy in knowing there is a financial safety net secured by the struggle and heartache of their ancestors to brace their descension into further depths of despair. Payne’s microcosmic view of humanity is distorted. What is especially troubling is when this brand of dark humor and dramaturgy draws laughs and sympathy from moviegoers. Thankfully, this has been isolated to a few floating islands in Mr. Payne’s paradise which is indeed very troubled.
Although there is more harmony in the film’s use of traditional Hawaiian music than between the film’s characters, the soundtrack has an adverse effect with regards to the accompanying visuals and actions that unfold. Similar to Tim Burton’s BEETLEJUICE employing a soundtrack of Calypso music, the music’s mood utilized in THE DESCENDANTS has a contradictory effect and becomes monotonously jarring, despite the few instances of diegetic music, for instance, where a Hawaiian band is playing in a dive bar.
The elder King, father-in-law, Scott Thorson (Robert Forster), is naïve to the fact that his “good girl” and “devoted”, “faithful wife” to Matt, has been having an affair with another man and treats her with compassion and dignity which is most becoming of a father. Upon his lips approaching his daughter’s mortal cheek for the last time, Matt, his daughter, Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and her simpleton beau, Sid (Nick Krause), peer into Elizabeth’s hospital room from the hallway to watch humanity be exhibited, albeit through a small, sliver of an opening of the door. King hasn’t the slightest inclination of the meaning of fatherhood as he consults those in his network of family and friends (even his eldest daughter, Alexandra) for advice. He even refers to himself in voiceover as a “back-up parent”.
This proves one thing: when faced with mortality, the cast of characters move about the screen in a harried fashion. Matt runs several blocks in flip-flops to the delight of sheepish audiences not accustomed to such behavior out of the mega-star which is delightfully pretentious when he could’ve simply driven his car resting idly in the driveway. And his nuclear family goes on their own bounty hunt for the man with whom Elizabeth has been sleeping.
Even Hawaiian and pop-cultural icon, Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman, “Dog the Bounty Hunter”, makes a brief appearance via his television program of the same name. This is a trope that King follows when he goes on his own mission to seek out and serve his unfaithful wife’s suitor, Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard). Imagine a bumbling, middle-aged “Magnum, P.I.” leading his own brand of Keystone Kops or Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade donning flip-flops and casual fatigues as opposed to his fashionable suit and sans a legitimate private investigator license. (Ironically, Clooney’s portrayal of Matt King physically appears casually fatigued throughout the film.) Upon seeing the motley crew of modern-day gumshoes stealthily seeking out Speer, the image of them comes across as more of a family outing to dinner and a movie rather than an impromptu manhunt.
It doesn’t excuse the fact that a responsible father would prefer to engage in such activities on his own rather than having to involve his youngest children and explain any potential repercussions likely to occur. Although the hunt for Speer serves no financial bounty for King and Company, it is eventually revealed that the hunted Speer will come into a bountiful sum of money if King’s trusted ancestral estate is sold to Speer’s commercial employer. Herein lies the conundrum: when pitted between choosing to sell the land or not, this will make Matt’s immediate family filthy rich and bestow a huge commission to Brian Speer in the process or King can maintain the dignity of his descendants visualized in the obligatory scene when Matt literally shines a light on photographs of his ancestors as he opens the seemingly long-closed shades in a cottage tomb of relics, framed pictures and keepsakes of his family.
Sadly, it is Elizabeth who insists through her Will that she be removed from life-support if there seems no chance of recovery and her body isn’t able to keep. This document thereby becomes the second instance of legal trouble for King to overcome; a gross contemporary representation of bodily maintenance compared to what King’s ancestors had assuredly implemented for their own well-being. It just seems quite value-less when one has to involve power of attorney to avoid spoiling like milk, as King’s father-in-law, Thorson, puts it. The duration of the film depends on Elizabeth hanging on for dear life, just as she clutches onto her small hand towels, so that those close to her not only have ample time to pay their final respects, but have the opportunity to offer forgiveness and/or right their wrongs with the soon-to-be-departed. It is therefore especially chilling when King vehemently curses her imminent corpse as he comes to grips on his inheritance decision knowing that she has been unfaithful to their holy bond of marriage.
The film shows that mortal death is inevitable. Robert Forster’s portrayal of Scott Thorson doesn’t look too far off either. Whoever oversaw his make-up and decor really made him look dreadful. (It didn’t seem so long ago that he knocked one out of the park in JACKIE BROWN as skilled bail bondsman, Max Cherry - - that ball is still soaring overhead.) THE DESCENDANTS not only shows the face of death by way of Elizabeth’s mortality, but also magnifies and inspects it on numerous occasions and when it takes on another form after cremation, the film comes to rest on its post-mortal ashes as they’re shoveled into the Pacific Ocean to descend the Polynesian depths. Elizabeth’s face is an image that is multiplied many times over in a child’s photography assignment at her elementary school. Its cooling visage is even applied with makeup. There is something terribly wrong about all of this.
On the other hand, George Clooney’s Matt King, though living and breathing, is utterly emotion-less with a consistently gravelly inflection. When he’s portraying happy, it appears to be sarcastic. When he shows anger, it still appears facetious. At once, when the script calls for him to be overcome with sorrow, his expressions of grief and anguish are wooden and just plain sad.
The film will unequivocally cater to mainstream audiences in the nation’s blue states; which is interesting, because one might deduce the correlation of first-generation Greek, Director Alexander Payne’s cultural affinity for the color, blue. Ironically, it was in Ancient Greece that there was a lack for a word for blue. Yet it has since become the prevailing and national color of the Hellenic nation (as well as a repellant for evil spirits and flies). Likewise, Payne’s films (most particularly evident in SIDEWAYS and THE SAVAGES) have slyly garnered an attraction to those audiences of a socially aware, liberally elitist, granola nature.
Were it not for the exalting imagery of the Hawaiian setting, THE DESCENDANTS appears as if it was contrarily produced and shot on a shoestring budget. The mise en scène of the various residence interiors, Alexandra’s private school, the hospital and adjoining beach venues exude a feeling of “on location” and look as though the film crew just happened to show up to film the respective environments. Coupled with this is an inordinate amount of close-ups, specifically in the exchange between King and Cousin Hugh (Beau Bridges). At the pivotal point when Hugh reveals the connection between Brian Speer and King’s ancestral investment, one close-up here would have been more effective. Instead, a monotonous series of close-ups ensue that are both uneven and makes one wonder if Payne shot the scene in this manner because he was in short supply of background extras the day of the shoot.
In the surf laden atmosphere of Hawaii, perhaps it would’ve been to Payne’s benefit to hang ten - - of his fictional cast of characters - - whose depressive and ultra-distressed existences make THE DESCENDANTS look more like a BLUE HAWAII. Come the finale, the King family sits down to ice cream (ala Marc Forster’s MONSTER’S BALL) perhaps to soothe their exacerbated tummies of the mutual stresses they overcame prior as they watch Luc Jacquet’s documentary sleeper, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS. If Payne is trying to relate the treacherous journey of the (emperor and female) penguins to that of King’s similarly “ancestral” breeding ground, then that is a further insult to the viewer - - quite frankly, the journey of the penguins is more arduous and exciting and portrays a more stable vision of parenthood despite the harmful elements that swirl around them as they help strengthen and develop their young.
1 comment:
It seems that you want the film to exhibit a positive example of parenting, while all of Matt's behaviors demonstrate the opposite. My feeling--and the reason I liked the film--is that he was learning what was important in his life. All those choices and bad behaviors you reference were steps in that learning process. I felt confident that with his choices and the things he learned along the way that he was destined to be a better single parent in the future and that he would decide to sell their property at some point when the time and reasons were right.
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