http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu8H3BiIPww
Ever wondered what it would be like to be married and have kids with George Clooney? Well, in The Descendants, he trades his flair for the suave and debonair for parental concern and ubiquitous dad shorts.
In what appears to be a quiet indie brought to you by Alexander Payne, the director of Sideways, Election, and About Schmidt, we see Clooney fumbling and out of his depth, felled by teenage daughters and a sick wife. He’s kind of schluby and ineffectual, and he looks a bit haggard, and not at all like he’s ready to rob a casino of millions of dollars. He looks like that guy who lives at the end of the block who curses at the ragweed that pops up in his lawn. Do we like this guy? Yes, yes, I think we do.
It’s kind of refreshing seeing Clooney play more of a real person. Someone perhaps you’d spend a few minutes discussing ripe eggplant with in the supermarket while he holds his wife’s tampons. And about that wife…yeah, she apparently did a little basement horizontal mambo with a neighbor unbeknownst to suburban Clooney. Yes, yes, we know. Who the hell would cheat on Booker from Roseanne? But it works seeing the Cloones taken down a peg, eh? And oh, look! Beau Bridges has decided to take a page from brother Jeff’s scraggly dude playbook and takes on the role of wise old suffer guy. Nice.
With a sumptuous view of Hawaii, and sure to be comedic moments, this new “everyman” thing Clooney is trying looks to be a good match. Who says Paul Giamatti is the only guy who can be great at being a schlub?
