Paradise can go fuck itself...!
Directed by Alexander Payne
Staring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley
Staring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley
OUT NOW
Nothing seems more un-appealing than George Clooney in a Hawaiian Shirt. The shot in the trailer didn't fascinate, I'm talking about the Cohen brother esq 'Clooney running towards something with sheer panic in his face' - its a shot of him I've seen countless of times, so my interest levels were low at best. It wasn't until I got wind that it was from the same guy that brought us About Schmidt: a film that I have only watched the once, but it made me sob like a baby. If you haven't seen About Schmidt then you should because it's bloody brilliant. Perhaps Clooney insists the running shot be included into the shot-list during pre-production, apparently he only took a $5 fee for the Searchlight Production, so that would certainly give him some sway in deciding how he has the camera on him... Here's hoping anyway.
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| Venerability give away? Naaa! |
The story about a man failing in life, or struggling through hardship interests me. Call it a level of personal paranoia that floods my conscious mind as I try my hardest to drift into slumber on a Tuesday night, but it really is gripping stuff when done well. The characters in American Beauty, Lost in Translation, Vanilla Sky, About Schmidt and the Matrix (...ha) all show the leading men dealing with this battle of expectation, and the dizziness that comes from the never ending quest of fulfilling an ideal that you, or Morpheus, sets you in your twenties - teetering on the absolute edge of it to begin with, but then falling into the void of loosing patience, settling down, starting a family, and forgetting that perhaps you were or could have been the one. Fucking blue pill, why did I choose the blue pill!!?
Payne's story is established immediately. George's character is an estranged husband at the bedside of his estranged wife after she had suffered a near fatal head injury while jet skiing. Our protagonist narrates to set everything up and I am interested in his take on Hawaii: "paradise can go fuck itself". It's a nice start.
The islands make for a really interesting backdrop where the on location stuff looks, and feels, like we are all in the real Hawaii. A suburbia of wood clad houses with cool fences and gates. Early into it he visits a parent of his youngest daughters peer group. Dog the bounty hunter is on the box. Great detail. Now, don't ask me how I know, but The Dog actually lives in Hawaii.
Although some of the directors detail in setting up the world is good, it quickly becomes apparent that instead of surrounding the main protagonist with a bunch of bizarre well crafted characters like the boyfriend with the mullet in About Schmidt, he has decided to cast local actors. It also appears that they employed the village idiot to play the love interest of his eldest daughter, although as the film warms up so does his performance, I constantly battled with whether it was bad acting, excellent characterisation, or if the kid in real life was a few Hibiscuses short of a Aloha Girls front garden.
Payne's story is established immediately. George's character is an estranged husband at the bedside of his estranged wife after she had suffered a near fatal head injury while jet skiing. Our protagonist narrates to set everything up and I am interested in his take on Hawaii: "paradise can go fuck itself". It's a nice start.
The islands make for a really interesting backdrop where the on location stuff looks, and feels, like we are all in the real Hawaii. A suburbia of wood clad houses with cool fences and gates. Early into it he visits a parent of his youngest daughters peer group. Dog the bounty hunter is on the box. Great detail. Now, don't ask me how I know, but The Dog actually lives in Hawaii.
Although some of the directors detail in setting up the world is good, it quickly becomes apparent that instead of surrounding the main protagonist with a bunch of bizarre well crafted characters like the boyfriend with the mullet in About Schmidt, he has decided to cast local actors. It also appears that they employed the village idiot to play the love interest of his eldest daughter, although as the film warms up so does his performance, I constantly battled with whether it was bad acting, excellent characterisation, or if the kid in real life was a few Hibiscuses short of a Aloha Girls front garden.
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| Shailene Woodley, acting her socks off, perhaps, but she's only a size 3 at best. |
Unfortunately the acting from the supporting cast was poor. Lots of screwed up faces, playing the state and huffs and puffs - classic signs of actors not engaged in the narratives action. There is a really funny bit where we have a silent cousin sat during a contract signing, toward the end who looked like he was trying to deal with some insane bowl movements. Then we had the disgruntled parent at the beginning, the wife's best friend, the dude who was riding the boat, who has the world’s biggest neck, and every scene involving the wife's father. In fact, at one point literally straight after a weak, a really weak scene involving the granddad, our village idiot actually says, "that was unreal!"-- Oh the irony.
Clooney's work is good, as much as I didn't want to like him he's very believable in this; and not all of the supporting actors let him down. The cross over in dialogue is exemplary, where a doctor switches from giving out some very tragic news about his wife's health to then switching his wants to the task of organ acquisition through downer. We also have some really touching scenes played in tandem to the story which do as best as they can to balance out the poor acting from the locals.
A good performance from Matthew "it's a scream baby" Lillard, who plays the man who had the affair with Clooney's wife.
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| Creepy... |
The make up is excellent, especially on his comatose wife; it is freakishly good in-fact and deserves a mention. She has colour in her face even though she didn't. It made for some uncomfortable pickups, which I am sure was the desired effect.
A moving scene in the boat at the end, where we see the conclusion to the journey of Clooney and his eldest daughter touched a few emotional buttons, and the ark of the story was very fluid. Combining a rich family history, high stake situations, interesting plot twists and pleasing characterisation.
It's one for the Netflix or DVD release, do not spend money going to the cinema when you can better spend it watching Rampart or the new Muppets film for instance, but it is certainly worth a gander.
A moving scene in the boat at the end, where we see the conclusion to the journey of Clooney and his eldest daughter touched a few emotional buttons, and the ark of the story was very fluid. Combining a rich family history, high stake situations, interesting plot twists and pleasing characterisation.
It's one for the Netflix or DVD release, do not spend money going to the cinema when you can better spend it watching Rampart or the new Muppets film for instance, but it is certainly worth a gander.
Written by James Alexander.
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