20th Philadelphia Film Festival – The Descendants

The Closing night film, featured George Clooney in The Descendants. Basically, it’s hard not to like this film set in Hawaii, although, I don’t feel it’s as good as writer/director Alexander Payne’s film Sideways. Still, I was very impressed with the balancing act of threading laugh out loud humor into really tough situations. The timing of which, is nothing short of brilliant.

Here’s what other reviewers are saying about the film:

With The Descendants, Payne has once again found an eccentric realm for us to explore, though with less caustic wit, presenting a Hawaii set tale of another off-kilter character…Our preconceptions about Hawaii as a paradise are arrested in George Clooney’s opening narration; his wife, seen enjoying the adrenaline rush from water skiing behind a power boat, lies in a coma, the victim of an accident that followed soon afterwards. People from the islands experience tragedy and work stress and strife like everyone else, we’re told, and we’re about to experience it. Matt King, Clooney’s sole trustee to an inherited family plot of unspoilt land with a Pacific aspect, is engaged, on behalf of his enormous brood, in selling it to developers, while his daughters, hitherto the domain of the mother, are now his sole responsibility –LFF Film Review: by Ed Whitfield

Brilliantly scripted and superbly well acted (there’s a cracking turn from newcomer Nick Krause as Alexandra’s teenage stoner ‘friend’ Sid) this film is more than the sum of its constituent parts. As a reflection of values, family and honor it’s not only unimpeachable but downright hilarious. Clooney describes it as ‘a coming of age tale for a 50 year old man.” – Redbull.com’s movie critic, Chris Sullivan

Payne’s first theatrical film in seven years (why is he so slow?), “The Descendants” navigates smoothly, delicately, and gracefully a turf that has become Payne’s specialty, an emotionally affective and effective hybrid of tragedy and comedy, melodrama and satire, tear-jerker and enlightening exploration of nothing short of the meaning of life, what’s important, what’s trivial, and so on. –Emanuel Levy Cinema

Alexander Payne sent along his long-time producer, George Parra to handle the Q & A after the screening. Below is the video: