REVIEWS
SPECIAL PRESENTATION HEADHUNTERS THRILLER 100 min DIRECTOR Morten Tyldum
SATURDAY, SEP 10 09:45 PM SCOTIABANK 1 SUNDAY, SEP 11 09.15 PM AMC 4 SUNDAY, SEP 11 03:00 PM SCOTIABANK 11 P&I
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
VANGUARD PROGRAMME OSLO, AUGUST 31ST DRAMA 95 min DIRECTOR Joachim Trier
THURSDAY, SEP 8 11:45 AM TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 5 P&I FRIDAY, SEP 9
09:30 PM SCOTIABANK 2
SATURDAY, SEP 10 09:45 AM AMC 1 SUNDAY, SEP 18 03:45 PM AMC 3
CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA SONS OF NORWAY DRAMA/COMEDY 88 min DIRECTOR Jens Lien
THURSDAY, SEPT 8 01:30 PM SCOTIABANK 2 P&I FRIDAY, SEPT 9 09:45 PM SCOTIABANK 3 SATURDAY, SEPT 10 12:45 PM AMC 3 TUESDAY, SEPT 13 01:45 PM SCOTIABANK 7 P&I SATURDAY, SEPT 17 07:00 PM SCOTIABANK 11
US. 2011. 115mins Director Alexander Payne Production company Ad Hominem Enterprises International distribution Fox Searchlight Pictures, 20th Century Fox International Producers Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor Screenplay Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash from the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings Cinematography Phedon Papamichael Production designer Jane Ann Stewart Editor Kevin Tent Main cast George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause, Beau Bridges, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Robert Forster
The Descendants REVIEWED BY MIKE GOODRIDGE
Seven years after Sideways, Alexander Payne returns with The Descendants, another blissful slice of Americana that confirms him as the finest chronicler of human foibles working in US movies. Both hilariously funny and heartbreakingly sad, it is a beautifully observed movie that will do strong box-office busi- ness around the world and be a major player in awards season. George Clooney gives his best performance to date as a man
in crisis, and his name will keep the grosses robust as the awards roll in. He should easily snag nominations in the next few months and could go all the way to the best actor Oscar. Fox Searchlight opens the film in the domestic market on November 18. Based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, the film has the
unusual setting of Hawaii and Clooney stars as the descendant of a Hawaiian royal princess. He controls a plot of 200 virgin acres of land which his family is about to sell to developers for hundreds of millions of dollars. But, as his character Matt King tells us in the opening voice-
over, Hawaii is no paradise and its inhabitants suffer the same slings and arrows as everyone else. In his case, his wife has had a boating accident and is lying in a coma, leaving him to look after his two daughters, Alexandra (Woodley) and Scottie (Miller). The prognosis is not good, and the situation is made more difficult by revelations that emerge from Alexandra about the fact Matt’s wife had a lover. The characterisations here are rich and fully realised, and the
journey — both emotional and literal — that Matt and his acid- tongued daughters take is as moving as it is funny. Along for the ride is Alexandra’s sweetly dumb surfer-dude boyfriend Sid (Krause), while assorted characters they encounter include the wife’s pugnacious father (Forster), her lover (Lillard) and his unsuspecting wife (Greer). Clooney eschews his traditional easy charm to inhabit the role
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of this awkward, schlumpy, tight-fisted lawyer whose parenting skills and appreciation of human behaviour are seriously limited. He spends most of the film with the three youngsters, led by Shailene Woodley who shines brightly as the acidic, angry 17 year old, and the chemistry between the four is natural and priceless. It is refreshing to watch a movie that treats such a wrenching
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tale of loss and grief with such warmth and wit, and without the relentless anguish to which many similar stories fall prey. We know Payne is a brilliant writer, but his script here, written with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, captures the frailty and resilience of modern humans with a rare insight and affection.
n 8 Screen International at the Toronto Film Festival September 11, 2011
NORWEGIAN FILMS
TORONTO 2011
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