Still one of the most eloquent American indie filmmakers, Alexander Payne’s first full length feature since 2004’s Sideways hits the nail on the head with its understated, morose, but very funny tale about a husband coping with the impending death of his wife.Clooney is Matt, a wealthy lawyer in Oahu, Hawaii, the sole decision-maker in a trust set up by his ancestors over a large and undeveloped tract of land which developers are just aching to pay him a very large amount of money for. This works as a back story for the crisis that Matt is facing: His wife Elizabeth is in a coma after hitting her head in a boat race, which inevitably leaves him as the “back-up parent” to deal with his two daughters—Alex (Shailene Woodley) and Scottie (Amara Miller)—the latter a riot of a foul mouth the size of a Hawaiian wave. There’s also another problem—Matt finds out from Alex that Elizabeth was cheating on him with a local real estate tycoon, Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard), whom we later find out is embroiled in the handover of his land deal. He takes off to Kauai with his daughters to spy on Brian Speer and possibly confront him and in the process—at the risk of sounding corny—gets to play a real father to his daughters for the first time.The plot may sound a tad melodramatic, although Payne’s always deft at handling his characters and in this one, he chooses to focus on life’s most unpredictable and funniest moments to drive home his point about mortality and the importance of honor and family. Clooney gives a career best performance—a low-key yet offbeat—as the disillusioned Matt. In this he’s aided by his pitch-perfect two young stars—Woodley is a revelation for an equally controlled performance as rebel Alex and Miller well beyond her years as the sensitive and clued-in baby. The setting of Hawaii further gives the film a sense of space and time: Present day Hawaii is presented as a stifling city comparable to the rest of the world, but its beaches and landscapes are essential to reveal the island’s preciousness and purity (beautifully shot with an unassuming eye by Phedon Papamichael).Without a doubt the best American family drama we’ve seen in a long time.