Alexander Payne’s 2011 The Descendants is a very worthwhile film to see about a family dealing with tragedy. A father and his two daughters very suddenly must deal with the loss of the mother. Each family member goes through an emotional journey. Each one deals with the loss in their own personal way.
I’ve mentioned this in other Payne analysis, so you may already know that Payne films are very character-driven. Payne doesn’t make action films, biographies, historical epics, comedies or romantic comedies. In fact, his films are difficult to categorize. If I had to, I’d classify them as “slices of life”. He metaphorically uses a microscope and focuses on several people and their interactions in a given situation. As someone who’s seen his share of gun fights, car chases, explosions, and superheroes, I find Payne films to be refreshingly different.
Going back to The Descendants, I should mention that this
movie takes place on the Hawaiian Islands.
But that’s not that important, you see, because Matt King tells us that
living in Hawaii is not that big of a deal.
“My friends on the mainland think that just because I
live in Hawaii, I live in paradise – like a permanent vacation. We’re all just out here sipping Mai Tai’s,
shaking our hips, and catching waves. Are
they insane? Do they think we’re immune
to life? How can they possibly think
our families are less screwed up, our cancers less fatal, our heartaches less
painful? Hell, I haven’t been on a
surfboard in fifteen years. For the last
twenty-three days, I’ve been living in a paradise of IV’s and urine bags and
tracheal tubes. Paradise? Paradise can go fuck itself.”
Something I believe a lot of viewers missed in all of this
is director Alexander Payne uses a plot device known as “the unreliable
narrator”. When a story’s narrator is
also one of the characters, then we should know not to completely trust the
veracity of the narration as it comes from a perspective of bias and ignorance of
not knowing everything that is going on.
Matt King Has To Deal With Two Issues
There appears to be two different stories that
intertwine. One is the fore mentioned
tragedy with Elizabeth King in a terminal coma.
The other is the King family owning and legally being forced to sell
some very valuable Hawaiian property.
The father Matt King, played excellently by George Clooney, is the one
who will ultimately choose the buyer of the property. So, the King family, while dealing with loss,
is also about to become very rich.
The story moves along with Matt and his two daughters,
Alexandra and Scottie visiting relatives and looking into the man Elizabeth was
apparently “seeing” behind Matt’s back. This has them moving all over the state, among
several of the islands. Around the
middle of the movie, they even visit the land in Kauai they will be
selling.
Hawaii
However, there is really only one story being told here. Matt has alienated his wife and two daughters to such a point where he really isn’t a husband and father anymore. Matt King’s world for years has been his office. Note his office is what you would expect from a lawyer’s office. There’s a big desk and a lot of books. His wife’s accident expands his world into the hospital. Again, the surroundings are typical. It’s in Honolulu, but you’d hardly know it.
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| Matt King in his comfort zone - his office |
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“For the last twenty-three days, I’ve been living in a
paradise of IV’s and urine bags and tracheal tubes. Paradise?” |
We can understand why Matt has this point of view as his
focus is so narrow. Notice that Matt
makes this comment from his wife’s hospital room. Circumstances are now forcing
Matt away from the two environments of his office and the hospital. Since the movie is shown entirely from the
perspective of Matt, we the audience see and hear what Matt had been missing
all this time.
The Descendants is the awakening of Matt King to the fact
that he is a descendant of Hawaiian royalty and that he and his family do
indeed live in paradise.
Notice Matt’s family and friends all seem to be transplanted
Hawaiians. Again, Matt has been living in a secluded world.
However, outside of this circle, many of the people they run into appear to have native Hawaiian ancestry.
During the opening narration by Matt King, we are being
shown Honolulu, people in Hawaiian shirts, people living in beachfront shacks,
and flowers in hair.
While showing a beautiful view of Honolulu and the Pacific
from the hospital window, Matt casually mentions he was on Maui when he learned
of his wife’s accident.
A casual drive in the neighborhood reveals palm trees in yards.
“Let’s drive over to the airport, we’ll hop over to the big
island and we’ll surprise your sister.”
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| Return walk reveals Matt’s flowery home. |
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| Hawaiian view/outriggers |
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| Friends banquet with a lot of seafood. |
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| Hula girl on dashboard |
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| Kauai Sunset |
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| Villa with palms |
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| Portrait by Matt |
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| Enjoying Hawaiian music |
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| The schoolmate's mother hopes Matt doesn't sell the land or at least that the family he sells it to is from Hawaii. |
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| Ancestor portraits |
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| Matt gets up, looks at portraits suddenly realizing their existence. |
“We didn’t do anything to own this land. It was entrusted to us. Now we’re just… I can’t do it, not going to
do it. I’m not going to sign… I don’t
want it to go to Hollitzer. I don’t want
it to go to anyone. I want to keep it… I don’t need a couple of days. I have the authority, and this is what I
want. We have other businesses that we’re
converting into corporations. We can
figure this out… Then I have seven years to figure out how to keep it… People
will be relieved Hugh, the whole state.
I sign this document and something that we were supposed to protect is
gone, forever. Now, we’re howly as shit
and we go to private schools and clubs and we can barely speak pidgin, let
alone Hawaiian. But we’ve got Hawaiian
blood and we’re tied to this land and our children are tied to this land. Now, it’s a miracle that for some bullshit
reason, 150 years ago, we owned this much of paradise, but
we do. And for whatever bullshit reason,
I’m the trustee now and I’m not signing.
I’m not signing it. So, if you want to sue me, it’ll just make us
closer.”
It took a tragedy and a legal clause to finally awaken Matt King to realize he truly does live in paradise. Don’t trust the narrator!
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