George Clooney’s Least Discussed Great Performance: The Descendants

Throughout his storied career, George Clooney has delivered some spectacular performances. The man won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Syriana, took home the Golden Globe for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and was great in the likes of Ocean’s Eleven, Up in the Air, Michael Clayton, and more.

Even Clooney’s most recent movie, Jay Kelly, features one of his best performances. However, an argument could be made that the very best work of George Clooney’s career came in The Descendants, a somewhat forgotten movie from 2011 that was a hit critically and commercially.

The Descendants Is An Oscar-Winning Movie

The Descendants sees George Clooney star as Matthew King, a man who struggles to cope with his two troubled daughters when a boating accident puts their mother on life support. There’s an emotional intensity to nearly every scene and it helped the film become beloved by critics.

The movie ended up being a surprising commercial success, grossing over $175 million on a $20 million budget. Despite that, it seems like people have mostly forgotten about the project, with it rarely getting mentioned over a decade later. That’s extra surprising given how well-received it was.

The Descendants racked up the accolades, with the most notable being the five Academy Awards it was up for. It landed nods for Best Picture, Best Director (Alexander Payne), Best Film Editing, and Clooney scored a Best Actor nomination. It ended up taking home the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The film also had seven nominations at the Critics’ Choice Awards, five at the Golden Globes, three at the BAFTAs, and two at the SAG Awards. It even scored a Grammy nomination, adding to its impressive list of accolades.

George Clooney Delivers A Great Performance In The Descendants

George Clooney is as good as he’s ever been in The Descendants. As Matt King, we get to watch him play a man who is dealing with the impending loss of his wife, as well as the struggles of not knowing how to take care of his daughters. It gives the actor so much to work with and he nails it.

This isn’t a performance that features a ton of heavy emotional moments for Clooney or the kind of monologue we often see from the top performances of any given year. Instead, it’s a quieter, more reserved bit of Clooney acting where he still manages to completely pull you in.

As noted, Clooney was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in The Descendants but that’s far from the only place he was in contention. He scored Best Actor nominations at the BAFTAs, SAG, and Satellite Awards.

He also went home with the prize at both the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globes. That marked the third Golden Globe and the first for Best Actor in a Drama (his other wins were for Musical/Comedy and Supporting Actor) and the first acting Critics’ Choice Award in his illustrious career.

Where This Ranks Among George Clooney’s Best Performances

It’s hard to pinpoint the very best performance from George Clooney because he’s had so many. Outside of The Descendants, Clooney received Oscar nods for Syriana, Michael Clayton, and Up in the Air, so those are all in the conversation for his greatest work.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Jay Kelly both saw him earn Golden Globe nominations, while there’s also his great work in the likes of Ocean’s Eleven, The American, Burn After Reading, and Out of Sight. Clearly, there is a lot of competition for the top spot.

In the eyes of many, Clooney’s best performances are likely from Up in the Air and Michael Clayton. However, his turn as Matt King in The Descendants ranks right near the top. In many ways, his performance there shares a lot in common with what he did in Jay Kelly.

In Jay Kelly, Clooney also plays the father of two sisters and he doesn’t have the best relationship with them. There, he struggles to reconnect with them later in life and it leads to a heavy emotional conclusion. He has a better bond with his daughters in The Descendants, but it’s still not where it could be.

Shailene Woodley Had Her Breakout In The Descendants

While there’s no doubt that George Clooney is fantastic in The Descendants, he nearly has the show stolen from him by his co-star. That co-star is Shailene Woodley, who is pretty well-known as a star today but that wasn’t the case when she was cast for this 2011 release.

At this point in Woodley’s career, she was mostly known for The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a long-running teen drama that wasn’t exactly met with the best reviews. So, it surprised many to see just how great Woodley is in this film, which set the tone for her future.

In it, Woodley plays Alex King, Matt’s oldest daughter. While the younger daughter, Scottie, seeks attention by bullying other kids, Alex has more pressing problems. She struggles with substance abuse and has problems connecting with her father. When she reveals that her mother was having an affair, it explains the rift between her and her mother.

There’s one particular scene where Alex, after an emotional outburst, jumps into the pool to swim. The shot of Woodley swimming as tears run down her face is powerful and is probably the most memorable moment from the film. It was all the talk about the movie after its TIFF premiere.

This performance turned Woodley’s career around as she went on to star in Divergent, Big Little Lies, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Spectacular Now, just to name a few. She has continued to deliver great performances since then.

The jury is still out on whether George Clooney or Shailene Woodley had the best performance in The Descendants, but what’s not up for debate is how stellar it makes the movie. Having two powerhouse performances means that The Descendants should be much better remembered by audiences everywhere.