Alexander Payne's The Descendants: exploring themes of pain and forgiveness

Descendants is a film that attempts to operate on several layers at once. While it may be said to be allegorical in one sense (taking place on what is popularly presumed to be an island "paradise," where falls are experienced and redemptions are sought), the film by Alexander Payne may also be said to be a simple story about a father and husband who learns (on his wife's deathbed) that he is actually a cuckold. What follows is a two-hour experiment in tolerance, as both the viewer and the characters in the narrative become aware of exactly where their threshold of pain stands. That threshold is then pushed to its limits, as Payne drives home one twist of the screw after another. In a way, the film is about the weakness of man -- Matt King's inability to love his wife, to be there for his children; Brian Speer's inability to resist the advances of King's wife; the inability of the heirs of the land to resist the temptation to sell out; etc. Forgiveness comes, the viewer presumes, from the daughter (though we never see it explicitly); it comes, in a way, from the husband (though it is, for the most part, internalized); and finally from Mrs. Speers, whose forgiveness, however, is still mingled with hate (which, when exposed, prompts Matt King to usher her from the hospital bedside where she delivers her piece). The film has no easy answers -- but does wish to explore.

Theme

The theme of the film is one of pain -- personal suffering at the hands of short-sightedness from those appointed to raise us and at the hands of those who have elected to love and honor us. Although each of the main characters in the King family fail in some form or another, the final act of Matt King in refusing to sign over the land to the money men is viewed as the act of fidelity that he failed to fulfill in his marriage (through his negligence) and that his wife failed to fulfill to him (through her adultery).

And yet, typical of Payne, the narrative fails to have an answer to the suffering of the characters. King's way of dealing with it is burying it: he says goodbye to it -- literally. Mrs. Speers' way of dealing with it is to try to snuff it out through a kind of forgiveness, though we are led to suspect that she still has a long way to go before her forgiveness is total; the daughter's way of dealing with it is through a kind of adolescent stoicism -- a combination of angst and resignation and mimicry of adult seriousness. What kind of woman Mrs. King was, we never really know. We know her only through the reactions of those around her, and, as Payne reveals, those reactions are largely unreliable -- filtered through the hurt and suffering and resentment of years of neglect, mistrust and self-pity.

However, Payne does attempt to unearth the heart, which is not always perfect. The anger that the Kings feel and express contends with their love -- and while neither seems to win out, there does appear to be a kind of truce. The surviving Kings gather on the sofa and stare at the television in the same way that they stared at the dying mother/wife in the hospital. Had Payne constructed a black satire, the transference of their gaze from dying relation to television set would seem poignant -- but the moment is not meant to be satirical. One wonders whether it is meant to be heartwarming. It is neither -- and the viewer is left to contend with the anger, resentment, grief, and love (that the characters have expressed) on his own. Resolution and catharsis are not achieved with the Kings' farewells. Something more is needed. But Payne does not seem to have the answer.

Plot

As Roger Ebert (2011) states, "Payne's films are usually about people forced into difficult personal decisions," and The Descendants is just such a film. The difficult decision at the heart of the film is how to recover honesty -- both in business and in personal life. To be true to his Hawaiian ancestors, King risks offending his Cousin Hugh, who wants Matt to sell off the family land. To be true to his wife and daughters, King must make strides in covering ground that he has neglected to cover in the past. He brings with him some personal flaws, but he also has a desire to find the lover that has cuckolded him and somehow make things right.

Matt does find the lover -- but his motive (not quite clear initially) transforms into a kind of respect: he wants to offer the lover the chance to say goodbye to the dying woman. Speers, of course, does not take the opportunity -- but his wife, finally let into the secret, does take the opportunity. It is a sad moment, but it is a moment that cannot be deferred. The grief of everyone, even of the father-in-law, is brought into perspective by Mrs. King (a woman of vibrant character, we are led to believe from the opening shot of her skiing in the ocean just before her accident) -- a character who, perhaps, is in need of empathy and forgiveness.

Style and Editing

Payne's style of directing is fairly straight-forward. He does not pull any punches with reversals or narrative. He does not rely on diagetics or symbology to achieve an artistic vision. His primary concern is to document the pain that each character feels and then to show how they deal with it.

The film is edited by Kevin Tent (who has been nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the film). Kevin Tent reveals the procedure that he and Payne used when approaching the editing of the material shot in Hawaii: "Our process of late has been to watch dailies for a scene or a couple of scenes and then start cutting…On The Descendants [Alexander] was leaving one night and…said, 'You know what? Editing is the ongoing process of masking how bad your film is" (Philbrick, 2012). Payne's self-criticism may show the type of analysis and detachment he is able to give his work. But the style of the film, as Liz Braun (2011) states is not what one would call bad; indeed, she states that the film "has a jaunty, energetic air about it…just the thing to lure you into the heart of a family tragedy." That jauntiness is key -- without it, the film would feel flat and heavy. But Payne keeps the heart alive with wry flashes of humor. Sid, the young interest of Alex, provides moments of laughter -- and even he shows signs of dawning maturity in the end.

The Descendants in the final analysis is a film about growing up -- and the style and editing -- the piece-by-piece process of analysis and splicing together, helps bring the narrative to a kind of whole. The editing techniques used in the film -- the sudden fade to black during the intro, the long, ponderous looks at the ancestry on the wall -- give the film a presence of mind and a tendency to inspire meditation that other films lack. The editing technique used here deviates from the standard technique of straight forward cutting, by allowing the viewer to slide into the family's story without even realizing what is happening. We are drawn to the woman's mirth -- and before we know it, we are affected by her accident. That accident draws us into the Hawaiian world and Matt's awakening (in a sense) draws us into having a sense of the Hawaiian people.

Set, Costumes, Makeup, and Acting

The set is Hawaii itself -- and as Ebert states it has as much of a part in the film as the actors. In a way the film is about embracing one's inheritance -- and the King inheritance is land that does not necessarily belong to them, but to Hawaii itself. Thus, Hawaii (its beautiful location as well as its touristy traps) comes to have an identity and a life of its own.

The costumes also reflect the place. Everyone is pictured in a Hawaiian shirt, whether lawyer, old man, bar fly, or musician -- the Hawaiian shirt is essentially a part of the atmosphere. The young people, of course, have their own sense of style. Sid grows his hair long and wears shorts; Alex wears bikinis, tight jeans, or tight shorts: they are both attempting to meet the fashionable standards of their generation -- and both reveal something about their character and both allow them, in a way, to act their age.

Makeup is most noticeable in the face of the dying Mrs. Elizabeth King. We see her alive and well only for a moment when she is skiing. But the rest of the film she is unconscious in a hospital bed. Her face becomes hollow. Her eyes become swollen and deathlike. Her makeup is put on to emphasize the fact that death is drawing near. Indeed, it does; but it also does more: it reminds the viewer that here is the very image of death itself: the one stumbling block for all the characters -- and, it would seem, for Payne himself, whose gaze is drawn to characters in "paradise" confronting the death of someone who has loved them and betrayed them -- but who, in the end, is perhaps in need of understanding, too.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Alexander Payne's The Descendants is a film about confronting reality and dissolving the illusions that we allow ourselves to construct to keep reality from intruding too far into our own personal lives. The danger of doing so is that it cuts us off from those who need us and those whom we are supposed to love. Matt King realizes this when his wife slips into a coma. His pain is alleviated by the fact, however, that he is not the only one suffering -- and that, perhaps, this accident is allowing him to see for the first time the life and world that are his. In the end, it is a film about loving what he have rather than trading it over for something else that we might desire. It is a film about embracing the paradise all around us -- and not losing it by forgetting to see it.

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