Hawaii, Money, Death & Family

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If anyone has a copy of The Descendants, the Nat Faxon-Jim Rash screenplay that Alexander Payne will begin directing early next year with George Clooney in the lead role, please send along. This Hawaiian-based adaptation of the '07 Kaui Hart Hemmings novel will be released in 2011 by Fox Searchlight.

(l. to r.) Alexander Payne, cover of The Descendants, Kaui Hart Hemmings, George Clooney.

The plot summaries I've read on movie sites made no sense so I've pasted two -- one from Publisher's Weekly, another from The New Yorker -- from the book's Amazon page.

(From Publishers Weekly): "Hemmings' bittersweet debut novel stars besieged and wryly introspective attorney Matt King (Clooney), the land-rich descendant of Hawaiian royalty and American missionaries and entrepreneurs. He wrestles with the decision of whether to keep his swath of valuable inherited land or sell it to a real estate developer. But even more critical, Matt also has to decide whether to pull the plug on his wife, Joanie, who has been in an irreversible coma for 23 days following a boat-racing accident.

"Then Matt finds out that Joanie was having an affair with real estate broker Brian Speer, impelling him to travel with his two daughters -- precocious 10-year-old Scottie and fresh-from-rehab 17-year-old Alex -- from Oahu to Kauai to confront Brian. Matt finds out the truth about Joanie and Brian, which influences his decision about what to do with his family's on-the-block land and complicates his plans for Joanie. Matt's journey with his girls forms the emotional core of this sharply observed, frequently hilarious and intermittently heartbreaking look at a well-meaning but confused father trying to hold together his unconventional family."

(From The New Yorker): "The narrator of this audaciously comic debut novel, the scion of the last Hawaiian landowning clan, has floated through his privileged life: marriage to a model given to 'speedboats, motorcycles, alcoholism'; children getting into trouble (cocaine, bullying) at elite schools; membership at a century-old beach club that rejects those with 'unfavorable pedigrees.'

"But when a catamaran accident leaves his wife in a coma he must wake from his own 'prolonged unconsciousness,' reacquaint himself with his neglected daughters, and track down his wife's lover. Meanwhile, his cousins are urging him to sell the family's vast landholdings for development -- to relinquish, in his eyes, the final vestige of their native Hawaiian ancestry. Hemmings channels the voice of her befuddled middle-aged hero with virtuosity, as he teeters between acerbic and sentimental, scoffing at himself even as he grasps for redemption."

Straight out of serious Clooney/Oscar-bait handbook. Matt King is the brother of Ryan whatsisname, the flyaway guy Clooney plays in Up In The Air.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 24, 2009 at 5:11 AM

comment #1

adayoung118 says ...

[Post deleted, cougar-site-promoting poster banned for life]

Posted by adayoung118 at November 24, 2009 6:39 AM

comment #2

Eloi Manning says ...

Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Sounds like a Western crimefighting duo.

Posted by Eloi Manning at November 24, 2009 6:41 AM

comment #3

jimtheindiefilmmaker says ...

Pardon me, but this sounds awful. Alexander Payne is from my hometown (Omaha), but really, this sounds a bit much; funny how Hollywood filmmakers who supposedly hate Hollywood and want to make European movies end up directing movies only modern Hollywood could (or would want to) make. Payne would be better off switching gears entirely and doing a serious period piece/drama of some kind.

Posted by jimtheindiefilmmaker at November 24, 2009 8:55 AM

comment #4

Mr. F. says ...

Jim: can't agree with you. *Anything* Payne decides to do, I'll be there opening weekend -- he's earned that after Election, Sideways and his short in Paris, Je T'Aime...

Posted by Mr. F. at November 24, 2009 10:18 AM

comment #5

Eloi Manning says ...

Payne's short in Paris Je T'aime was by far the best thing he's done. Not to disparage his other stuff, but the short was excellent. Easily the best thing in that anthology by a considerable distance.

Posted by Eloi Manning at November 24, 2009 10:46 AM

comment #6

Ryansi51 says ...

The short was really beautiful in its own way, but you really can't compare it to SIDEWAYS. seen it 50 times, and i'll see it 50 more.

Posted by Ryansi51 at November 24, 2009 12:07 PM

comment #7

JohnCope says ...

I can never understand the immense affection for that short. I can barely remember it.

Posted by JohnCope at November 24, 2009 12:07 PM

comment #8

jimtheindiefilmmaker says ...

Mr. F: Go back and watch "About Schmidt" again ha ha..awful film and an awful adaptation of a good book. I admire Alexander Payne tremendously, but let's face it, this new movie sounds like one big "indie-wood" cliche; I mean, do you want Payne to turn into Wes Anderson, constantly repeating the same old tired formulas over and over? He's capable of much, much more.

Posted by jimtheindiefilmmaker at November 24, 2009 12:27 PM

comment #9

Mr. F. says ...

Jim: note that I didn't include "About Schmidt" in my examples of why Payne deserves a pass... :-) I actually agree with you on that one -- I'm not a fan, but at least his mistakes are interesting.

While the summaries posted (of the novel, NOT the screenplay) don't exactly whet my appetite... I can't wait to see what he does with it, and whether it's a success or failure. But as far as current writer-directors go, he's one of my favorites.

Posted by Mr. F. at November 24, 2009 12:54 PM

comment #10

Mr. F. says ...

(and Eloi: you're right, Payne's short was easily the best -- probably because it was the only one to say something interesting about Americans, the French, and the city of Paris itself. If I recall, most of the other shorts were trifles that just happened to be set in Paris, though it's been a while since I saw the film.)

Posted by Mr. F. at November 24, 2009 12:57 PM

comment #11

lazarus says ...

I didn't know that the shorts in Paris, Je T'aime were supposed to be about Americans as well. Payne's entry was great, but I don't get the implication that he somehow understood the assignment better than everyone else.

Posted by lazarus at November 24, 2009 3:10 PM

comment #12

Ryansi51 says ...

BY FAR the best and most affecting short in Paris, Je T'aime was the black guitar player who got stabbed in the square, and the woman EMT who tried to save him.

i cry every time i watch it, its beautiful

Posted by Ryansi51 at November 24, 2009 4:31 PM

comment #13

Mr. F. says ...

Laz: while the shorts aren't supposed to be about Americans, per se... there are some very telling moments about how Americans travel abroad -- like when she talks about how she's been trying French food, and the camera briefly cuts to a hamburger and french fries on a room service plate in her hotel room. FANTASTIC moment. Or when the woman tries to use her basic French, and the French shopkeeper switches to English... another funny, and very real, moment. (That has always happened to me whenever I go to Paris, which is why I found it so funny in the short. And I have a pretty good accent.)

Since I hadn't seen it in a couple years, I looked on Youtube, and voila!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2EbK0NEl5A

In hindsight, it's much less about an average American in contrast to the French, and more about loneliness. And while sure, I'll spot you that Payne may not have "understood the assignment better"... the movie itself is called Paris, Je T'Aime. That's what the shorts are supposed to be about! As far as love letters to Paris go... I got that in Payne's short more than any of the others.

Posted by Mr. F. at November 24, 2009 5:02 PM

comment #14