The Descendants: George Clooney's best performance yet?

The Oscar-winning charmer plays against type as a hapless dad in Alexander Payne's new flick

George Clooney in "The Descendants"
(Image credit: Fox Search Light/Merie)

The Descendants, the first film in seven years from Sideways director Alexander Payne, opens Wednesday after being heralded at the Toronto Film Festival as an early Oscar contender. George Clooney's performance as a rumpled Hawaiian dad struggling to keep his family together after his cheating wife winds up in a coma is being singled out as one of the best yet from handsome George. Really?

It may well be: "Clooney's performance as Matt may be the best of his career," says Phil Wallace at Picktainment. Clooney usually plays the swaggering type, but Matt is vulnerable. "Clooney shows range that he's never displayed before" as he "deftly handles the challenge" of playing a "powerless soon-to-be widower" and "hopeless father" with two troubled daughters.

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