As a person who considers Hawaii somewhere to vacation but not to live, I appreciated George Clooney's criticisms of the Aloha State in the opening frames of Alexander Payne's new film The Descendants. Clooney portrays Matt King, an attorney in Oahu whose family roots in Hawaii stretch back for generations. Despite this history King knows that life on Hawaii is just as difficult as anywhere else--people get sick, marriages suffer strain, the kids are difficult. These are universal challenges in any weather.
Matt's difficulties are piling up. His wife Elizabeth is in a coma, caused by a high-speed boating accident. His oldest daughter Alex, 17, struggles with addiction and is at boarding school on the Big Island. Alex has been angry at her mom for a while, with no signs of abating. His youngest daughter Scottie, 10, misbehaves constantly and misses her mom. To top it off, Matt soon has to make an enormous decision about whether to sell a pristine patch of paradise his family owns on Kauai. This would make developers and his cousins very wealthy, but would betray the trust the family has earned throughout the state.
Once Matt learns that Elizabeth's coma is terminal he rushes to the Big Island to retrieve Alex. The next day he tells Alex the news, choosing to spare Scottie as long as possible. He asks Alex to stop being angry with her mom. Alex tells her dad that her mom was cheating on him, which is why she is so angry.
Matt's first reaction, naturally, is shock and anger. He races in ill-suited beach shoes to a friend's house to ask what they knew about Elizabeth's affair. After a painful argument he extracts the name of her suitor, a local real estate agent named Brian Speer. Many plot twists later Matt comes face to face with Brian, including some gazing over the bushes into his Kauai guest house (Matt has taken the family, including Alex's goofy friend Sid, to Kauai for the express purpose of tracking him down). This scene, with its comic furtiveness, reminded me of Paul Giamatti's frantic retrieval of Thomas Hayden Church's wallet in Payne's earlier film Sideways.
While on Kauai Matt learns that Brian stands to profit handsomely if the land is sold to the developer who is the leading contender. He also learns that Brian is married with two kids. He could ruin Brian's marriage by revealing his affair but chooses not to do so.
This restraint is Matt's hallmark, and is both his strength and weakness. Through conversations with friends and during his encounter with Brian, he painfully gleans that his emotional aloofness is what drove Elizabeth into the arms of another man. But restraint has its place; despite Sid's macho urgings that he pummel Brian, Matt's real purpose in coming to Kauai is to let Brian know that Elizabeth is dying in case Brian wishes to pay his respects. Matt also chooses not to reveal the affair to Elizabeth's father, despite the old man's obnoxious hectoring about what a faithful wife his daughter was and how Matt had sorely mistreated her. One reason Matt spares his father-in-law is because he knows some of what he says is true.
Matt also knows that he needs to get to know his daughters better. From rocky beginnings he and Alex form a deep bond, whether in taking care of Scottie or when Alex chats with Brian's wife Julie so that her dad can have his man-to-man moment with Brian. Scottie is a harder case; Matt enlists the doctor's help to inform her that her mom will soon die. With a stronger father-daughter bond such an intervention would not have been necessary. This doesn't mean Matt did the wrong thing by enlisting the doctor, just that he has some work to do to strengthen his relationship with Scottie.
Towards the end of the film the relatives gather to decide whether to sell the land, and if so to whom. The expected developer wins the vote. Matt is the sole trustee, though, so he has veto power. He decides not to sell and to find a way to keep the land undeveloped forever. Although presented as a courageous gesture, the unspoken benefit is that Brian will not get rich. Matt does the right thing, for a mixture of reasons.
Eventually Elizabeth dies, after Matt removes life support per her request. His goodbye at the hospital is sweet and tender; he cries and repeatedly calls Elizabeth "my love." This is achingly sincere. True love of another requires forgiveness and an understanding of what we've done to cause them pain. Elizabeth can't tell her side of the story anymore, and by this point Matt has worked through his anger. Now he can be a better father and a better man.
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