But in The Descendants, opening Nov. 23, he makes up for lost paternal time as Matt King, an attorney with family ties to aristocratic Hawaiian landowners. After his wife falls into a coma following a boating accident, he not only has to mend his broken ties to his daughters — Scottie (newcomer Amara Miller), a precocious 10-year-old, and Alexandra (Shailene Woodley of TV's The Secret Life of an American Teenager), a recovering 17-year-old drug abuser — he also must cope with the revelation that his spouse had been cheating on him.
Good thing Clooney finds himself in the hands of a master of flawed male characters, director Alexander Payne, who has co-written such memorable models of manly misbehavior as Matthew Broderick's morally challenged teacher in Election and Paul Giamatti's wine-swilling loser in Sideways.
Payne says his knack is "just narcissism," explaining, "I'm just paying homage to myself."
It's not clear whether Payne's switch to more scenic locales —most of his earlier movies were shot in his home state of Nebraska and nearby Iowa — helped him to snag the Oscar winner for the lead. But the dry-humored filmmaker sounds happy to have him on board.
We think. "He executed his part very well. He is perfectly cast and it's exactly the right part for him."
Perhaps the reason Payne is less than forthcoming about his lead is because, as he says, "It's difficult to give him a hard time. George is always in such good spirits."
He is more effusive about the young ladies playing Clooney's daughters, especially Woodley. "She is just aces," he says. "She is really going places."
Were the girls ever awestruck by having a onetime Sexiest Man Alive in their midst? "Once the camera starts rolling," Payne says, "the director forbids such behavior."
His films often defy easy categorization, although he does specialize in satirizing society's foibles. But if Payne were to classify The Descendants, which was just announced as one of the titles heading to the Toronto International Film Festival in September, how would he describe it? "It's a drama with a light touch. Or it aspires to have a light touch."
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