Scribd
Upload
63 views2 pages

The Descendants Movie Review

The Descendants tells the story of Matt King, a well-off lawyer in Hawaii, whose life is upended when his wife suffers a boating accident and falls into a coma. He must now deal with his estranged teenage daughter and younger daughter. He also learns that his wife had been cheating on him. The film explores how Matt deals with these unexpected personal crises. George Clooney gives an excellent subtle performance as the conflicted Matt King coping with loss and family issues. The film is praised for its realistic portrayal of adulthood and how people deal with unplanned life events.

Uploaded by

Oshram Kino
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
63 views2 pages

The Descendants Movie Review

The Descendants tells the story of Matt King, a well-off lawyer in Hawaii, whose life is upended when his wife suffers a boating accident and falls into a coma. He must now deal with his estranged teenage daughter and younger daughter. He also learns that his wife had been cheating on him. The film explores how Matt deals with these unexpected personal crises. George Clooney gives an excellent subtle performance as the conflicted Matt King coping with loss and family issues. The film is praised for its realistic portrayal of adulthood and how people deal with unplanned life events.

Uploaded by

Oshram Kino
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

The Descendants

(2011)
I didnt know this was a film made by the guy who did Sideways (which I must admit I still havent seen); I heard good things about it, and that is always enough to get me to see any film starring George Clooney. Hes one of the most reliable actors working today. Clooney plays Matt King, a well-off lawyer on Hawaii whose wife suffers a boating accident, forcing him to deal with his two daughters, wayward teenager Alex (Shailene Woodley) and younger Scottie (Amara Miller), neither of which he has much in common with. On top of that theres a massive land deal in the works; he heads a trust, along with other members of his family, that owns a gigantic parcel of land on one of the other Hawaiian islands that developers are aching to get a crack at. As if he doesnt have enough on his plate, Matt also learns that his wife was cheating on him, and he has to decide how to deal with that. This is one of those subtle dramas that normally I dont go for, as they require just the right touch to be effective. With the wrong balance or tone, the quirky kids can come off as simply annoying, and conflicted Matt could appear indecisive. Thankfully, writer/director Alexander Payne displays artful deftness with his characters, his setting, his words, and his tone. They all come off as real people with real issues dealing with an unexpected and monumentally crappy turn of events. As with almost all good drama, an undercurrent of connecting with those who should be close to us but arent is present, but its handled adroitly here, with smart choices throughout the film (when Matt first hears of the affair, he sprints to a nearby neighbors house in anger and frustration, which tells loads more about the character than just having him hop in the car; likewise Alex is dismayed that she learns her mother wont recover from her coma in the pool). These might be minor touches, but they strike such a realistic chord that they draw us directly into the story and characters. Clooney is simply excellent here; he displayed the ability for subtlety in the slowpaced The American, but hes just perfectly cast here, and he owns the piece. Not that he needs any help, but both Woodley and Miller are also note-perfect; Alex is suitably complicated, as all teenaged girls are, and theres much more to Scottie than just a precocious youth. For most of the movie they are joined by Alexs friend Sid, played by Nick Krause, who also delivers just the right performance to slowly win us over to his character. Had any one of these actors been off the mark even a little, the movie might have slid off the rails; but theyre all just spot-on. Obviously I liked the film; subtle is not something we see often in American film. Its hard to do well, people get bored without explosions or gunplay, and its not especially suited for 3D. But every once in a while its nice to see a movie aimed at adults that actually delivers on the promise that adulthood is mostly a long, complicated process filled with events that we dont plan and largely dont expect, and that most of what really matters is how we choose to deal with them. Im not

surprised this was nominated for so many Oscars; certainly it deserved them. Well worth a look, before someone can spoil it for you. March 20, 2012

You might also like