The Descendants

In The Descendants, George Clooney plays Matt King, a Honolulu lawyer whose wife Elizabeth lies in an irreversible coma as a result of a boating accident. As Matt struggles to carry out the terms of her living will, which stipulate that she be removed from life support, he must also cope with the reactions of his two daughters, ten and seventeen, a task his role as "backup parent" has ill-equipped him for. Additionally, as the head of the family trust, he must decide the fate of a huge tract of land worth half a billion dollars to developers.

And then he learns his wife had been having an affair.

A less mature or intelligent director than Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways), who also co-wrote the screenplay, might have treated Matt 's story as melodrama or farce, or perhaps tragedy, but The Descendants never defaults to cliché or stereotype.

For while Matt may be slightly pompous, with an over-developed work ethic, qualities which no doubt made him an unexciting husband, he is a decent man and a sense of responsibility is his bedrock virtue. Despite the pain and anger he feels in the face of Elizabeth's impending death and the discovery of her unfaithfulness, he nevertheless carries out her wishes, and shields those who would be hurt by the knowledge of her infidelity.

Matt also never wavers in facing up to the daunting challenges of coping with the behaviour of his daughters. And though he is not the most emotionally demonstrative of fathers, there is no doubt he loves them and will do anything for them. Pay close attention to the movie the three of them are watching in the final "ice-cream eating" scene.

The performances by Clooney as Matt and by Shailene Woodley as elder daughter Alexandra and Amara Miller as younger daughter Scottie are natural and moving. Just as memorable a character is Hawaii itself, for Matt King is descended from Hawaiian royalty and his sense of responsibility asserts itself powerfully in the decision he must make about his family's patrimony. Hawaii, its people, and its culture are treated with affection and respect, but not, most emphatically, as a tropical paradise.

And although this is a serious film, there are moments of comedy. Some of them arise from Matt's pomposity, but most of them are provided by Sid, Alexandra's boyfriend, a young slacker who has more to him than at first appears.

North American culture is adolescent and that is reflected in the shallow way men are generally depicted on screen. Whether as comic book superhero or cop/soldier who can kill without qualm, loutish man-child or inept parent, men's lives are viewed through the twin lenses of teenage male wish fulfillment and rebellion.

Matt King – husband, father, son of Hawaii – is portrayed, not as heroic, idiotic, or incompetent, but as a good man. The Descendants is that rarest of films: one that asks us to take a middle-aged man seriously.

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