Yes, No, Maybe So: "The Descendants"
Friday, May 27, 2011 at 12:30PM 
Robert (author of Distant Relatives) here, taking a look at the trailer for the new Alexander Payne film The Descendants, and pondeing Yes, No, Maybe So.
Do you remember what you were doing in 2004? Perhaps sometime around when Massachusetts was performing its first legal gay marriage, Friends was going off the air for good, and George W. Bush was being elected to his second term as President you watched Sideways and thought that this Alexander Payne fellow was really hitting his stride as a director of intelligent comedies. If you, like me, were a fan, you didn't expect to have to wait seven years for another dose.
While Payne has been out of the director's chair for that long time, his influence has been undeniable. Darkly comedic slice-of-life films about men living lives of quiet desperation, while always present in the cinematic landscape, are starting to feel more and more like Payne knockoffs. Films like The Weather Man, Dan in Real Life, Lars and the Real Girl, or Smart People have attempted to capture some of that magic with varying results.
Now that we have our first look at the trailer for his latest, which teams the director with George Clooney as a man who must spread the word about his wife's recent accident, reconnect with his daughters, and come to terms with a revelation of infidelity.
YES. Alexander Payne's name was always going to be selling point enough for me. But there's also something here about George Clooney that's intriguing. Maybe it's the constant sadness behind those eyes, or that head full of gray hair. The knock against him has alway been that he only plays variations on the same character (an acting style I've never minded, if it's good enough for Bogart and Cary Grant). But comedically Clooney has always been in the realm of over the top. Here, he's doing something more subtle and my immediate sense from this trailer is that I'm watching what could be a very good, very awarded performance.
NO. Then again, Alexander Payne's name is one of the few things in the trailer that suggests you're not watching one of those many Payne copy cats. All the standard genre tropes are here. Single parent (sort of). Check. Mid-life crisis mode. Check. Relationship with kids he doesn't understand. check. There doesn't seem to be much new ground. What this could be is a good but minor work from Payne, expelling some leftover ideas, and cleansing his palate for the future. Unfortunately that's the sort of artisic luxury we only allow directors who are a bit more prolific. If you're waiting seven years between pictures, sorry we're going to demand another masterpiece.
MAYBE SO. Removed from any preconcieved expectations, there are some really nice moments here. While Robert Forster (it's always great to see him) punching an annoying kid in the face is guaranteed to please an audience, my favorite human moment is Clooney's inability to audibly say that his wife was sleeping with someone, quickly morphing the word "sleeping" into "seeing." It's small things like that which separate Payne's films from the pack, and the presence of even one in this trailer suggests that at least he hasn't forgotten it.
Your Turn: Yes, No or Maybe So? I sense that this isn't the type of trailer that sets the web ablaze with buzz. How do you feel? If you're not a Payne/Clooney fan is there anything here to stoke your interest? If you are does the trailer whet your appetite?
Reader Comments (13)
Easiest YES ever.
Love me some Payne.
BRIND DA PAYNE!!!
Um...no. Really. Unless it turns out to be a surprise, he's repeating himself.
Agree 100% with Alex. After "Sideways," "About Schmidt," "Election," and his sublime bit for the anthology "Paris, je t'aime," Payne has stored up a lot of good will in my view. If he didn't work in a low-key comedic mode, he'd have a greater reputation than someone like Clint Eastwood. On the other hand, I was on the fence about "Up in the Air" because I was tired of the Clooney shtick. People keep saying he's the new (insert favorite classic movie star), but there are reasons we don't have classic movie stars anymore. We're able to watch their performances again and again whenever we want and see their shtick turn into shtick.
I guess I'm a Yes. I like Payne's films, and, although I don't like Clooney, I agree he's a good actor and he didn't make Up in the Air less interesting to me.
The subject doesn't seem that innovative, but I think it's going to be well-handled. I'll lower my expectations though, this looks like a quiet little film and a lot of buzz may ruin it.
I guess I'm a Yes, but more for George Clooney than anything else. The story does seem to revisit those similar kinds of films with sad-sack middle-aged white guys grappling with FAMILY and MARRIAGE and PROBLEMS. But I'll give Clooney some credit for looking world-weary and impressive in this. I'm liking this phase that he seems to be in his career now. "Michael Clayton," "Up in the Air," and "The American" were great films. Some got their due and some didn't, but he was great in all them, and there was more going on in all of those performances than him just playing himself. All three of those performances were more deserving of the Oscar than "Syriana." This could very well be his next nomination. I don't have too much of a view on Alexander Payne. His films haven't exactly set my world on fire, but if he has a success with this one, that's good too.
Never seen a Payne film but I like Clooney and despite feeling unoriginal, the film looks entertaining so YES.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (2011) -- Robert Forster
Yes! Yes! And Yes! There's no No. There's no Maybe So.
Clooney and Payne can do no wrong in my book.
It looks absolutely wonderful.
It looks really vanilla and if the name PAYNE wasn't attached I would be horrified. But I will check anything out by the man behind such great works as Sideways and Citizen Ruth. No to cinema, but yes to a video rental.
Another "No" to look at: the girl from The Secret Life of the American Teenager cannot act her way out of a paper bag.
Maybe although the trailer is very unimpressive to me. I also don't think it was cool to spoil the fact that the wife was unfaithful but I guess the trailer would have been incredibly boring without that revelation.
Why not?
a) Who's Jennifer Lawrence 2.0? And please I hope I don't go to jail for calling her that.
b) Beau Bridges! The Bridges I grew up with! Seriously.
c) Seeing Robert Forster I thought R. Lee Erney was still alive.
d) What part of America do people pronounce their gerunds with 'een' por 'eeng.'
:)