A father reconnects to 'The Descendants'

It's been seven years since writer-director Alexander Payne released "Sideways," starring Paul Giamatti as Miles Raymond, a struggling novelist coming unhinged in California's Napa Valley. At the movie's end, Miles' long-gestating manuscript was shaping up as a personal triumph; some have been expecting as much from Payne's long-awaited follow-up, "The Descendants."

Instead, the movie never feels personal enough. Based on Kaui Hart Hemmings' 2007 novel about a distant father forced to pick up the parenting torch, "The Descendants" hits all the right notes -- sorrow, comedy, tenderness -- but it seems to be playing by rote, not from the heart.

This time the warm-weather backdrop is Hawaii, and George Clooney plays Matt King, a native with royal blood and lots of family land. He's well-heeled but a workaholic: His teenage daughter, Alexandra (Shailene Woodley), cries neglect, while his 10-year-old, Scottie (Amara Miller), has a potty mouth that partly contributes to the film's R rating. Only after his wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie, barely seen), falls into a coma does Matt realize she's been cheating on him.

As in "Election" and "About Schmidt," Payne piles comedy onto misfortune, but here he resorts to some overly broad strokes. Elizabeth's embittered father (Robert Forster) seems impossibly hostile, while Alexandra's boyfriend, Sid (Nick Krause), is too coarse and stupid to be believed (he guffaws at her demented grandmother). When Matt confronts his wife's lover (Matthew Lillard), things finally begin to feel real and complicated. Even that spell, however, is broken by a pat, sentimental subplot involving Matt's ancestral land.

Clooney, who can fill a screen like few other stars, shrinks himself to fit this small-scale movie. That means some respectable acting but no truly memorable moments like, say, Giamatti's wine-guzzling freakout in "Sideways." It's a passably good film from a director who could have given us so much more.

RATING R (language, adult themes)