The Descendants ****

Remarkable for George Clooney's best performance in years, for it's depiction of Hawaii as a place where people live and have lived for generations, for its respectful, sympathetic, and realistic portrayal of family life dealing with the impending death of a loved one, "The Descendants" is a heartfelt drama without histrionics. Director Alexander Payne ("Sideways") achieves in this film an evenness of tone appropriate not just to Hawaiian life, but to the everyday prose of American experience these days.

When his wife suffers a severe head injury in a boating accident, busy lawyer, family trust executor, and "back-up parent" Matt King (Clooney) must reconnect with his daughters, ages 10 and 17, and the life and the wife he seems to have been too busy to deal with. We see his connections and his history as he must deal with his responsibilities as a father, as business head of his clan, and as a husband. Adapted from the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, the screenplay does a masterful job of saying just enough, and leaving it to Clooney to convey what is unspoken, the sharp retorts that are swallowed before they can erupt.

I'll even grant a dispensation for the violation of one of my cardinal rules: show, don't tell (when a screenwriter dies, he becomes a narrator, you know), because the voice over by Matt King not only gives context, and allows the film to devote its time to him and his daughters, but in its just-the-facts plainness, provides some insight into his character and defenses. Not just Clooney, but the rest of the cast is first rate, especially Shailene Woodley as the older, recovering addict daughter. For a truly excellent film with no visible special effects, this one is my pick.