The Descendants
Bottom Line: You’ll laugh and cry more than ever.
“Paradise? Paradise can go f–k itself.” –George Clooney as Matt King
Directed by: Alexander Payne
Starring: Amara Miller, George Clooney, Shailene Woodley
Mature cross between tearjerking drama and biting comedy follows the narration of Matt King (George Clooney), a workaholic living in Hawaii. We are told early on that his wife has fallen into a coma from a boating accident, and later that she will not survive. Devastated, Matt makes an attempt to connect with his two daughters, 10 and 17. Only to bring him further shock, he is told by his teenage daughter that before her boating accident, his wife was having an affair.
The monstrous effort Clooney delivers to develop his character is nothing less than astounding, and it would be shocking for the Best Actor Oscar to not go to him this February, regardless of the other nominees. His character, Matt King, narrates in the beginning of the film that he was always the “backup parent.” His teenage daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) has shows absolutely no respect at all for him, almost constantly swearing in front of him and questioning his fatherly role. His other daughter Scottie (Amara Miller) is not much better, appearing to take her own older sister as a role model. Even in such a dysfunctional family, George Clooney is believable as more than just a “backup parent.” When he visits his wife in the hospital at one point, he unleashes his inner hot-headedness: rather than forgiving her and saying goodbye, he yells at her about all the mistakes she made and at that point could not undo.
“My wife’s dying. Wait a minute, f–k you! And my wife’s dying.” –George Clooney as Matt King
Most movies have one or two tearjerking scenes, but THE DESCENDANTS tugs at heartstrings from beginning to end. From the moment we hear Matt mention his wife’s tragic situation, we have our hearts sinking and become sympathetic. If you’re looking for a movie that goes to a superlative level of both the comedy and drama genres, THE DESCENDANTS is for you. If not, I pity you.
The Descendents was a very good film, but not sure why everyone‘s going crazy over it. It’s an extremely well acted, straightforward story, but there’s nothing revelatory here. It feels like a made for TV movie concerning a family in crisis. There’s something like this on Lifetime every week. Clooney does some nice nuanced work here and he plays against type, so points for that. Defiantly worth watching, but not even close to best picture of the year IMO. I enjoyed your review though.
I can’t recall having seen anything on Lifetime, but from all I’ve heard, I absolutely agree with you. I didn’t think it felt quite like a TV movie; something more like last year’s Soul Surfer is one that reminded me thoroughly of something made for TV. If it definitely won’t win Best Picture, then I HAVE to see The Artist, which I have heard is going to win. In fact, I received a Best Buy gift card for Christmas, and I’m not going to spend one penny of it until The Artist is available for me to buy on DVD.
I still haven’t seen this one yet, I want to see it soon. With all the praise it is getting, and from your review, it seems like a really great movie.
Something I’d like to tell you (and really anyone who is unfortunate enough to have not yet seen it) that I didn’t really emphasize in the review: I had heard various times that this was a comedy, but from what I’d heard, I expected it to be more moving than hilarious. It was both. George Clooney blended the movingly powerful and the sarcastically funny very well in his role.