Alexander Payne's 'The Descendants' Receives Rousing Buzz at Telluride

Source: /Film, Firstshowing.net, Youtube, and Variety

Reviews of Alexander Payne's (Sideways, About Schmidt) new movie The Descendants came online after a screening at the Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado, earlier today. The dramedy, starring George Clooney, focuses on real estate mogul and distant family man Matt King and how he deals with his wife's entrance into a coma. This is Alexander Payne's first film since the Oscar winner Sideways hit theaters in 2004. See the official synopsis (via Apple Trailers), the trailer, and festival reactions after the break.

From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning SIDEWAYS, set in Hawaii, THE DESCENDANTS is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family's land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.

Payne has been unable to premiere his last two films at Telluride despite invitations to do so. With The Descendants, the director was able to snag a screening at the festival, which started yesterday. Various bloggers have already posted reactions to the film, and the consensus has been quite positive. Critics have praised Shailene Woodley's performance as King's older daughter. Payne's direction, George Clooney's effort in the lead, and the Hawaiin score have also met good reactions. Although phrases including the word "Oscar" haven't been thrown around yet (there will be plenty of that when the Toronto International Film Festival starts this coming Thursday), things are sure sounding good for Payne and company. See below for some quick reactions.

Peter Debruge via Variety:

""The Descendants" is one of those satisfying, emotionally rich films that works on multiple levels. Some will call their travel agents to book Hawaiian vacations as soon as they dry their eyes (just as "Sideways" boosted wine-tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley), while more cynical auds should find layers to engage their sensibilities as well."

Peter Sciretta of Slash Film

"The Descendants is a brilliant film about the catharsis in the face of the death of a loved one, and the realization that you might not have known everything about that person...The film is beautifully scored using Hawaiian music, and while the movie is set in Hawaii, we get a much different view of this “island paradise” than we’re used to seeing on screen...I can’t wait to revisit the movie again when it is released later this year."

Todd McCarthy via The Hollywood Reporter

"Payne has always impressed with his talent for injecting his studies of flawed ordinary people with unexpected warmth and comedy, but never has his knack for mixing moods and modulating subtle emotions been more evident than in this adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings’ 2007 novel."

On a different note, here's what Alex Billington of Firstshowing.net had to say:

"The biggest problems with Descendants lie in the script, and subsequently the dialogue. It seemed as if they took a PG-13 script and punched it up with cursing just to make it more "real", but almost every single line of dialogue with a curse word felt forced, it didn't feel like natural discourse...While I don't think this is Clooney's best performance, he does a great job playing Matt King, as he balances the nuanced, calm side of King, and his wild, angry side (when it comes out), too. However, two of the best performances in the film are Shailene Woodley, who plays his older daughter, and surprisingly Matthew Lillard, who shows up in the later half of the film."

Sound intriguing? The Descendants will do a flippy floppy run into theaters November 23rd.