Up in the air

The Descendants

(2011)

I had forgotten--or maybe I just failed to notice the first time, though with Morgan Freeman's narration, that's hard to imagine--that the movie the King family gathers under a blanket on the sofa to watch in the poignant final scene, otherwise almost silent but for the sound of spoon on ice cream bowl, is March of the Penguins, a quietly perfect coda, the theme of the handoff of parental responsibilities providing an answer to Matt's comment early on that he's "the backup parent, the understudy."

I was a little afraid when this came out that it would benefit too much from my Alexander Payne halo effect, but if anything, I think I gave it insufficient credit first time around. This is a gorgeous film in every way (not least in the Hawaiian expanses of blue and green). As for Clooney, I think someone should cast him as Job. No, not a modernization of the story, with some poor schmuck having his wife knocked into a coma by an accident, then finding out she'd been cheating on him--no, I mean a faithful rendition of the Old Testament story of God fucking over his faithful servant every which way. No one could do it better.