Tuesday 24 January 2012

Best Actor 2011: George Clooney in The Descendants

George Clooney received his fourth Oscar nomination for portraying Matt King in The Descendants.

The Descendants deals with Matt King who owns a great deal of real estate in Hawaii due to inheritance. He deals with his wife being in a coma she will not awaken from, a big money land deal, his rebellious daughters, and learning that his wife was having an affair.

The last three films by Alexander Payne have been about older men dealing with some serious problems in their life, and facing a crisis. I should say right away that George Clooney does not at all change his track record with me, and proves that he most certainly is no Paul Giamatti or Jack Nicholson. Clooney as usual never really makes a mark in his part that will ever make me remember Matt King as a notable character, and actually portrays Matt King in a somewhat different way for Clooney but still the same as his other performances in terms of its success.

Clooney firstly does not give his Up in the Air "Hi I'm George Clooney" type of performances that so many believe to be charming, I don't. In fact in the role of Matt King he never really tries to be charming in any way and does indeed attempt to show Matt as more of just a man trying to go through his series of crises. Having said that though his performance is more in line with that of his performance in Michael Clayton, but like his performance in Michael Clayton there is not the required conviction in his performance or characterization to make his performance compelling.

In fact his performance is rather incompetent in many ways as he attempts to be the exasperated husband and father. I simply never bought him in the role as the man who is emotionally bent out of shape, something Jack Nicholson and Paul Giamatti succeeded with very well in their similar roles. Clooney just never seems tired enough, or truly a man who has experienced troubles of Matt King's sort in life, it just not there ever in Clooney's performance as much as he wants it to be. I will give credit that Clooney tries many things in this performance, but this actually just leads to an inconsistency in his performance.

 Clooney attempts quite ineffectively to combine drama and comedy in his performance in a rather poorly conceived fashion. For example when he first learns of his wife's affair he goes running for some reason like he is one of his films for the Coen brothers. Than he confronts someone about it with the utmost seriousness. There is not any sort of logic for Clooney to do this in this scene, he does anyway, which causes him never to turn Matt King into a compelling character in any fashion. He truly fails to bring us into Matt's mindset and problems at any point in the film.

I must say much of the time Clooney is just going through the role with the same uncertainty throughout in his performance, there is not a single scene where he really finds a way to make his performance compelling. He fails to ever really brings Matt's problems to life even in the what should be some compelling scenes that one would think would automatically bring it out. That is the scene with his wife's lover, Clooney is bizarrely dull throughout the whole affair, there is not even signs of repression anger or anything like that.

He plays almost all of his scenes with his typical lacking in conviction Clooney fashion. The only scene he really does more is his final scene with his wife where he finally breaks down, and says goodbye. It wants to be the heartbreaking "Oscar" scene, but Clooney is frankly at his worst in this scene. He frankly wants to rush through the scene, and is not convincing for a moment. He is just clearly "acting" during the whole scene and he fails to bring a single genuine emotion into the scene. This is a poor performance by Clooney, and I will be very annoyed if I have to add "won his second Oscar" to this review.

19 comments:

dinasztie said...

Blah, I hope Brad Pitt or Dujardin wins.

He wasn't terrible but come on... And add that I loved him in Up in the Air and Michael Clayton.

Anonymous said...

Love that review Louis, unfortunately I think you will have to add that won his second Oscar

RatedRStar said...

I like Clooney as a person but as an actor he sucks balls xxxx, plays the same fucking sly charming jerk in every film.

RatedRStar said...

Jean Dujardin I feel is the only one that can beat Clooney, Pitt lost the globe so that cancels him out for me

dshultz said...

I too liked him in Up in the Air, but he's essentially playing the same person here. If you gave Ryan Bingham (his character in Up in the Air) a family, and then put his wife into a coma, and made him a land baron, this is exactly what I think would have happened. It's like, his career has been a natural extension of one role to another, save his performance as Fred Friendly in Good Night, and Good Luck. I thought he was terrific in that.

RatedRStar said...

What did you make of Shailene Woodley

Louis Morgan said...

I thought she was even worse than Clooney.

RatedRStar said...

lmao =D any reason why xxx, is that a sign you didnt like the film

Louis Morgan said...

She was never convincing either, and her line readings were all over the place. I think maybe I could have liked the film if the majority of the performances weren't quite so lackluster.

RatedRStar said...

I like it when you review a performance and then summarise at the beginning of the review if you liked the film like you did with reviews like Razors Edge

mrripley said...

Not convincing at all,the bedside crying was rushed and unconvincing,your analysis is spot on,i found woodley uneven one min she is rebelious then she is teaming up with dad and can see why mccarthy was nominated instead,i think jean will pull a benigni,just a guess,pitt is the rightful winner.

Louis Morgan said...

RatedRStar: Maybe I'll start doing that again.

Anonymous said...

Wow, there have been few other times when I've read a review that summarizes exactly how I feel about a performance, this is one of those times. I think he was inconsistent and what bothers me the most is that I feel he was trying to give a good performance, I feel he wanted to stretch his acting abilities but he just doesn't have the talent needed for that, I think his biggest problem was the comedy/drama issue, it's like he didn't know what was the nature of his performance and he failed repeatedly. He just can't win the Oscar, I'm really hoping for Dujardin to take it!

Anonymous said...

What is your problem with George Clooney?!

Louis Morgan said...

He is not a good actor.

RatedRStar said...

The Descendents is supposed to be a comedy/drama, Comedy?????????????????

Anonymous said...

He is not a good actor.

Lol so true

Anonymous said...

it's a sign of the times when the leading contenders for the Oscar are two glamorous Hollywood stars.

Eddie

Anonymous said...

Clooney did nothing for me in this film either, but you should check out his brilliant performance in The American.