There are ample opportunities for poignancy in The Descendants, but whenever the film comes close to making an emotional impact it turns into a sitcom. Take for instance a key scene near the film's end where Judy Greer tearfully forgives the comatose woman who tried to steal her husband; at first it's a touching, powerful moment, but before you know it she's somehow playing the scene for laughs. Such jarring, inappropriate moments mar a film that could've been uncomfortable, but relatable in the way Payne's Election and About Schmidt were.
I cannot imagine Payne could've scripted something more amateurish. From the Screenwriting 101 voice-over that introduces the flick to an awful comic relief character named Sid who serves no purpose at all except to offer cheap laughs, it's hard to believe Payne ever wrote Election. To his credit, he gets a very solid performance out of Shailene Woodley. She gives the film whatever humanity it has.
George Clooney is doing what he always does, coasting along and failing whenever presented with a challenge. He has to do some physical comedy when following the man he knows had an affair with his wife. Waddling behind a bush, it's a wonder why anybody lets this man approach acting physically at all. He can't do sight gags to save his life and he sabotages the scene.
A couple veteran performers, Robert Forster and Beau Bridges, are trotted out for no good reason. Both have completely thankless roles. Bridges, for instance, has to be a sounding board during a climactic moment where Clooney makes a major decision that doesn't really impact the plot very much in any direction. The film attempts to balance the two plots of a cheating, comatose wife and a major land deal. They're clumsily connected for convenience's sake, but it's almost astonishing just how little the latter plot matters at all.
By the end, all these characters want to do is eat ice cream and watch March of the Penguins. Sounds decidedly more fun and thought-provoking than a screening of The Descendants.
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