Director: Alexander Payne
Stars: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause, Robert Forster, Beau Bridges, Judy Greer
Screening: general release
Rating: ****
CLOONEY. The name is synonymous with cool assurance, easy charm, even a certain wry detachment.
But in writer-director Alexander Payne’s first film since the sharp, acerbic Sideways (2004), Clooney cries.
No Hollywood histrionics. Just heartfelt, human tears. Only the hardest of hearts would be unmoved as Clooney’s character, Hawaiian lawyer and landholder Matt King, says goodbye to his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie, a forceful though mute presence in many scenes), in a coma and taken off life support following a boating accident.
Matt, we learn from his voice-over narration, is the ‘‘back-up parent’’, a man whose preoccupation with his business has estranged him from his wife and two daughters – rebellious teen Alex (Shailene Woodley) and 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller).
Alex has been sent from Oahu to boarding school on the ‘‘Big Island’’ following issues with ‘‘drugs and older boys’’ and Matt has had little to do with Scottie.
But now he has to take on the role of primary parent, dealing with Scottie’s erratic behaviour at school and fetching Alex home to be with her family. He has to find a way to tell Scottie her mother is about to die, and deal with Alex’s anger. Not to mention friends and relatives, who also have to be told and given the opportunity to say their goodbyes.
All the while, Matt is dealing with the proposed sale of the vast landholding that has been in the family for generations, and over which he presides as sole trustee. There are, we learn, many cousins eagerly anticipating a considerable windfall when the thousands of pristine seaside acres have gone to developers.
Matt is perplexed by Alex’s fury, but he’s about to learn why she is so disaffected and reckless. The revelation takes Matt, his daughters and Alex’s friend Sid on a trip from Oahu to another of the Hawaiian islands, Kauai, and a confrontation that’s meant to complete the jigsaw and deliver closure.
Payne and his co-writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, in a screenplay adapted from the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, have delivered a simple tale about ordinary people trying to cope with the vicissitudes of life.
But even the most mundane lives have dramatic episodes and big decisions to be made. Scratch the surface here and you’ll find love, and death ... the whole damn thing, really.
It’s a story about connections – how we’re connected to each other, and to the land on which we live. It’s about blood and sand and water and, ultimately, the dust that binds us all. Ashes to ashes.
We are, Matt says, like the islands that make up the Hawaiian archipelago, forever connected even while we’re drifting apart.
At the heart of this beautiful little film is a sublime performance by Clooney, registering perfectly Matt’s vulnerability, confusion, apprehension and anger.
When he crumples to the ground after telling their friends of his wife’s grim prognosis, his grief and despair are palpable.
And he gets great support from a talented cast who know a thing or two about restraint. Shailene Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager), who plays Alex, and Amara Miller (Scottie) are wonderful, while Nick Krause also shines as Sid, who at first seems a bit of a dill but who reveals empathy and unexpected depth as the story unfolds.
Also worthy of mention are Beau, the older of the fabulous Bridges boys, as one of the cousins, and veteran Robert Forster (Medium Cool, Jackie Brown), who absolutely nails Matt’s heart-broken, embittered father-in-law.
Payne takes pains to frame his story in the real world. There are glorious shots of glorious beaches, but the Hawaii we see here is not likely to feature in any travel brochures. This sky is frequently full of clouds.
The soundtrack is also suitably restrained, making effective use of familiar Hawaiian melodies and gently strummed strings.
I won’t be at all surprised if several of those involved in this honest endeavour have a date with Oscar in the coming weeks.
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