Yes, No, Maybe So: "The Descendants"

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 Writes: David O. Russell and Keira Knightley *LIVE*

Wanted to share two recent e-mails I got from longtime TFE readers about their own cinematic-adjacent adventures seeing the stars live.

BBats recently took in a double feature of Citizen Ruth and Flirting With Disaster at Cinefamily and Oscar-nominated directors David O. Russell (The Fighter) and Alexander Payne (Sideways) spoke to the crowd.

Alexander Payne and David O. Russell at the Cinefamily event

BBats writes:

I was listening to your latest podcast (love it) and wanted to share Russell's answer to a question about Nailed and if it will ever come out.  Russell said that the production company used Nailed, Taylor Hackford's Love Ranch, and a Philip Noyce film that would have starred Scarlett Johansson (never shot) as a shell game, shifting money between the three when it was needed. Hackford wouldn't work on Love Ranch unless he got paid first, and Russell got shut down for the final time that same week -- they had been shut down 7 or so times.  When trying to get it going again, Russell shopped it around in rough state like a "two dollar whore" and nobody wanted it.  He said he wanted to move on and leave all the badness behind him.

And with the success of The Fighter, I guess he won't be needing to beg for much work (my opinion).

BBats also recommends attending any event that Russell speaks at because he's hilarious. I can vouch for this myself as mentioned in this post about his Museum of the Moving Image interview. Payne spoke about Citizen Ruth, the 1996 abortion-debate satire starring Laura Dern, which you MUST see if you haven't.

The original title for Citizen Ruth was "The Devil Inside." Mr. Payne said two of his favorite jokes he's written are when Ruth punches the kid and the helicopter scene where Ruth shouts at her mother. (I won't spoil the joke for those who haven't seen it). The movie was given the go ahead by Harvey Weinstein in a Lincoln towncar. He was being pestered by producer Cathy Conrad and he relented saying, "Oh all right."  It took five years to get the greenlight.

Meanwhile across the pond, Rami saw the new production of THE CHILDREN'S HOUR on stage in London during previews.

Elisabeth Moss and Keira Knightley in The Children's Hour

The star-studded affair (Keira Knightley, Ellen Burstyn, Elisabeth Moss and Carol Kane. Whew) opens officially tomorrow. As you may know this is the play which inspired the movies These Three (1936) and The Children's Hour (1961), the latter starring Shirley Maclaine and Audrey Hepburn. Maclaine is now embarrassed about her participation (see the documentary: The Celluloid Closet, 1995) The play is about a school girl who spreads a lesbian rumor about two teachers at her boarding school. The rumor isn't true except that it hits too close to home for one of the teachers and sets in motion a terrible series of events.

Rami writes:

Overall I thought that the entire production was strong. The set design was effective if sparse, with the boarding school set consisting of blueish grey wood panels and a very tall bookshelf.

The first half, which could use some pacing work, focuses mainly on the young school girls. I have to admit that Hannah grated as Mary, sticking to one note of  ‘lying angry little girl’ and rarely getting out of it. However, there is a wonderful pivotal scene in the first half between Moss and Carol Kane (who plays her aunt) where they discuss Karen's (Knightley's) engagement. Kane pushes and prods and Moss gets angry while trying to control her emotions, trying not to admit what she knows is true.  

The second half of the play is much stronger, Ellen Burstyn does nice subtle work as the grandmother who is inclined to believe the child's lie. The final scenes are very strong. Moss is nothing short of exceptional, from her initial despair, to her confrontation with her Aunt, to the joy when she thinks they've been saved to her utterly heartbreaking confession of love. Knightley never overplays it and is mostly reactive, but the moment when she lets all her rage and fury flow out lingers after you leave the theater.

Oh how I wish I could fly to London at the moment!

Have you ever seen The Children's Hour or Citizen Ruth?