Rated R

The characters in Alexander Payne’s films seem at their best when in decline. The thrill comes from watching the spectacular fall while waiting for the inevitable rescue. In “The Descendants,” Payne’s first film since 2004’s “Sideways,” Matt King (George Clooney) is on the fast-track to a fiery crash. His wife Liz is in an irreversible coma following a boating accident, and he’s in charge of a land deal that could earn his family millions of dollars and change the face of Hawaii. He also must reconnect with his two daughters, both of whom are adrift after their mother’s accident.
The complications of compounded tragedies drive “The Descendants,” and Clooney handles the turbulence well enough. But, somehow, Payne, who’s known for his mordant humor and sympathetic portraits of unsympathetic folks (“About Schmidt”), barely keeps the film aloft. It’s a rare miss for Payne, one that’s softened by strong performances from Clooney and Shailene Woodley, who stars as his rebellious-but-protective teenage daughter.

Adapted from Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel, “The Descendants” is a portrait not just of Matt King in decline, but his whole family, extended and immediate. The Kings are one of the oldest land-owning families in Hawaii, intermarried with the descendants of King Kamehameha. Now, King and his cousins, a bunch of goofy middle-aged guys in sandals and faded Hawaiian shirts, must sell the huge tract of pristine land they own in Kauai. Meanwhile, his eldest daughter Alex (Woodley) is boozing it up at a boarding school, while his youngest daughter Scottie (Amara Miller) is acting out at school.

As King tries to iron out a land deal with the cousins, he must also make the rounds and inform other family members and friends that his wife isn’t coming out of her coma and, according to her will, he must end life support. The trouble is further compounded when Alex reveals that her mother was cheating on King with a shifty Honolulu real estate agent.

“The Descendants” is the stuff soap operas are made of—a once-wealthy but now-faltering family confronted with terrible tragedy and fading status, all in a picturesque locale. Payne keeps the film as “real” as possible, with help from cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, who presents us with an overcast, dingy Hawaii, one that’s more full of strip malls and melancholy locals than polished resorts and smiling tourists. Hawaii becomes as much of a character as the Kings, a place where lush forests and sparkling beaches serve as reminders of heartache, not distractions from it.

Clooney, too, trades his suave confidence for confusion and pain. He also gets to be funny, not in the cartoonish way he uses when cast in Coen Brothers films, but in an understated, affable way. His scenes with Woodley are precise moments of a father and daughter struggling to forge at first an uneasy alliance and, later, an actual relationship. The only downside is that King is such a thinly sketched character that these relationships, whether lost or renewed, don’t have much weight. There are some great supporting turns in “The Descendants,” especially from Judy Greer, who stars as the real estate agent’s wife and brings vibrancy to the few scenes that she’s in, along with Robert Forster and Beau Bridges.

Despite all that, “The Descendants” never manages to hang together. While Payne gives the film a leisurely pace that fits in with the sun-bleached setting, the dialogue is hurried and filled with clunky, over-dramatic lines that wouldn’t be out of place in a soap opera but feel like glaring errors when delivered by Clooney. The script, by Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, and Payne, evens out around the halfway point, but the rushed, exposition-filled lines help stall whatever momentum Payne is trying to generate.

“The Descendants” rambles to a conclusion that’s predictable but well-earned. There’s heartbreak and a last-minute change of mind, and you can easily figure out which situation gets which ending. Clooney and company’s freefall through paradise is a fun ride, but it’s not until that last leg of their journey, when things even out, that “The Descendants” is really satisfying.