The list of films that screen at the annual Telluride Film Festival in Colorado is always a secret until opening day but it’s no secret that audience members loved the slice of Hawaii in Alexander Payne’s new movie, “The Descendants.”
Reviewers got their first look at the film on the festival’s opening day, Sept. 2, and praised Payne’s adaptation of the Kaui Hart Hemmings novel shot here in early 2010. They’re even saying it’s Oscar-worthy.
Chris Willman of TheWrap reported that the reaction at a secret screening — attended by Payne and the film’s star, George Clooney — ranged from “near jubilation to jubilation.”
The screening served as the film’s world premiere despite previous announcements that it would be shown first at the Toronto International Film Festival, which opened Thursday. After additional screenings in New York and London, it will be the closing-night selection Oct. 23 at the Hawaii International Film Festival. Fox Searchlight last week moved up the film’s general release date to Nov. 18.
“The Descendants” is the story of a family crisis set in modern Hawaii. Clooney plays Matt King, the descendant of a 19th-century Hawaiian princess and a Caucasian banker. One of the state’s largest private landowners, he must somehow deal with the reality that his comatose wife is about to die from a brain injury — and that she was also having an affair. At the same time, he is trying to reconnect with his two rebellious daughters and negotiate the sale of his family’s extensive land holdings.
CLOONEY’S performance moved those who saw it.
Todd McCarthy of the Hollywood Reporter said “The Descendants” will connect with “any audience looking for a genuine human story.”
“A major key to the film’s success are the nuances, fluctuating attitudes, loaded looks and tonal inflections among the main characters; the ensemble work is terrific,” McCarthy wrote.
That ensemble cast includes Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster and Judy Greer as well as local actor Patricia Hastie.
Scott Feinberg, also of the Hollywood Reporter, believes the film will face tough competition for the Academy Award for best picture, but Clooney is a strong choice for best actor in “one of his best performances to date.” Feinberg said Payne has a good shot at the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, which he won for his 2004 film “Sideways.”
The film also looks at Hawaii in a way never before seen on the big screen.
John Horn of the Los Angeles Times thought pretty much the same thing. “This is not a tourism ad, and the island is filled with ordinarylooking people (some are fat, some use wheelchairs, some are poor) with some extraordinary problems. And yet, at the same time, the land anchors the story — it’s what ties these characters together, and may drive them apart.”
Variety’s Peter Debruge said the film works on multiple levels.
“Of particular interest is the way Payne allows class and race to supply an interesting, albeit subtle, subtext,” he wrote. “There’s a melancholy sense of something passing, linked to Hawaii itself through the stunning mix of widescreen vistas and native music, as well as the assurance of life’s essentials being preserved in the film’s perfectly executed final shot.”
AND that’s a wrap …
