George Clooney's Matt King lives by his father's principle that you should give your kids enough to do something, but not enough to do nothing. He is a descendant of King Kamehameha and is the head of a family trust that controls some of the most pristine undeveloped Hawaiian land. His cousins want to sell to a local developer, because it seems like the right thing to do. But would their ancestors really want a resort with golf course on the land? The principle applies to much more than money.
Matt describes himself as the back up parent. His wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie, PRINCESS KAULANI) was the primary caretaker for their two daughters. But now Elizabeth is in a coma following a boating accident. Matt is now confronted with two kids that make no sense to him. His 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller) is unruly and likes to get attention by saying inappropriate things. His 17-year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley, TV's THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER) is on another island attending a boarding school where she is supposed to be cleaning up her act from alcohol and drugs. Matt brings Alex home but it never seems like the right time to tell her that his mother will never recover. But when he does, she has something to tell him — Elizabeth has been cheating on Matt.
Elizabeth's infidelity serves as a common bond between Matt and Alex. Now they want to hunt down Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard, SCREAM), the man their wife/mother had fallen in love with. They go as far as to follow him on vacation where they meet his friendly wife Julie (Judy Greer, 13 GOING ON 30) and their two kids.
While they have to deal with the changing view of their mother/wife and how that relates to them, they have to share the news with their family and friends. Elizabeth's father Scott Thorson (Robert Forster, JACKIE BROWN) blames Matt for everything wrong in their relationship. Alex promises to be more civil if she can bring along her stoner friend Sid (Nick Krause, HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS). He has a way of enraging everyone though. But there is more to him and why he is there then you might think.
Director Alexander Payne, like he did with SIDEWAYS, balances skillfully between comedy and drama. Working from his script with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash based on Kaui Hart Hemmings' novel, Payne uses his paradise setting as an ironic backdrop for a film about letting go of someone, or in the case of the family land something, you love. Complex emotions of anger, resentment, love, compassion all run through the characters. In a wonderful scene, Matt encourages Alex to not be angry with her mother while he just yelled the same feelings to his comatose wife. As a modern portrait of family concerns, the film gets the problems just right. Matt might worry about how his foul mouthed kids will turn out, but outside of the words she chooses to use Alex has mature things to say to her younger sister.
Clooney again brings his Cary Grant-like charm to this difficult role. Matt is clueless and needs to find his way. But he becomes so likable in his helplessness like Grant in BRINGING UP BABY, but this part also has great seriousness as well. Watch the tact and sensitivity he brings to scenes where he announces Elizabeth's condition with friends, or how he deals with Scott and Brian. Woodley is yet another young actress who has really stepped into the spotlight this year. She makes Alex real and complex. She might be young, but she's the shoulder Matt needs.
While Elizabeth never says a word throughout, we get a pretty strong portrait of who she was. Each person in her life has their own different view of her depending on what they know about her and when they knew it. As Matt and his kids come together over the course of the film, we get a sense they might be losing one parent, but they are gaining one they never really had. For Matt it might be too late to do the right thing for his marriage, but it's not too late to do the right thing for his kids, which in turn does the right thing for his wife too because they are her descendants too.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
