• Amazon Sales Rank: #252 in DVD
• Running time: 115 minutes

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Only Oscar-winning writer-director Alexander Payne (Sideways) would think to cast the famously handsome George Clooney as a disheveled dad in his outstanding adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings's tragicomic novel. Clooney dials down the glamour to play Matt King, a Hawaii real-estate attorney with a propensity for unflattering shirts and ill-fitting trousers. When Matt's wife, Elizabeth, ends up in a coma after a water-skiing accident, Matt must learn to balance the parenting of his resentful daughters, Scottie (Amara Miller) and Alexandra (Shailene Woodley, The Secret Life of the American Teenager), with the sale of a pristine plot of Kauai land that stands to make the King cousins, including scruffy Hugh (Beau Bridges), a fortune. As Elizabeth's condition worsens, Matt contacts friends and relatives, like her fiercely protective father (Robert Forster), so that they'll have the chance to say goodbye. In the process, he finds out she was having an affair with realtor Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard, effectively cast against type), so he and the girls, including Alex's hilariously mellow friend, Sid (Nick Krause), go on an island-hopping trip, ostensibly to add Brian to the mix, but Matt really wants to find out what his wife saw in the guy. His journey from naiveté to knowledge brings out Clooney's soulful side, creating a believably flawed, deeply sympathetic figure. If Payne leans too heavily on the slack-key soundtrack, his love for his characters, including Judy Greer as Matt's female counterpart, results in his most emotionally satisfying movie to date. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
A Unique Family Dramedy About Searching For Truth, But Finding Something More Important
By K. Harris
It seems hard to believe that it's been seven years since Alexander Payne's "Sideways" became the critical darling of 2004. Nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and winning Payne an Adapted Screenplay Oscar--that picture (along with Election and About Schmidt) signaled a talented filmmaker with an unorthodox worldview. Blending elements of comedy and drama, Payne has crafted complex characters simultaneously frustrating and sympathetic--but altogether real. In adapting Kaui Hart Hemmings' intimate novel "The Descendants" to the big screen, Payne demonstrates (once again) a deft balance of emotions to create a picture both funny and heartbreaking. I so admired how Payne made vineyards and fine wines a major component, an extra character really, in the sublime "Sideways." In much the same way, Hawaii is a principle character (and I would contend one of the most pivotal) to "The Descendents." It would be easy to imagine someone jettisoning much of this rich texture, but Payne has crafted a loving tribute to the state's heritage in addition to one of the year's most surprising family dramas.

George Clooney plays one of the titular descendants, someone whose family has great historical significance to the Hawaiian Islands. In fact, he and his many cousins own a great tract of undeveloped land that plays a major role in the film's fascinating side story. Front and center, however, is a more personal tale of family dysfunction and pulling together in crisis. When Clooney's somewhat estranged wife is incapacitated in an accident, Clooney must take charge of his troublesome teenage daughter (an astute Shailene Woodley) and his rebellious younger girl (an appealingly unexpected Amara Miller). With mom in a coma, Clooney is left to do his best to reconnect with the girls that he hasn't made enough time for. While this seems to be leading to some routine comic hijinks, the film takes a decidedly more serious turn as Clooney learns about his wife's true feelings. The rest of the movie walks the tightrope about how he and his daughters can channel these revelations and emerge stronger for it. And the film runs the gamut of emotions with anger, betrayal, love, and regret sharing equal time as the family embarks on a tumultuous journey together.

While I know this makes the film sound like a bit of a downer, there is much humor to be enjoyed as well. While I'm confident that many will reveal far more about the plot than I am willing to, I think that it is best to let the story unravel without expectation. This is very much an in-depth character study. As such, Clooney has one of his most rewarding roles. He goes through a lot, but he maintains a subtlety that always keeps the picture grounded (even in its more extreme elements). Woodley is a revelation and this is as far a departure from TV's "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" as she's likely to experience. I'm confident we'll be seeing more of her. Miller has a real ease and provides many well placed laughs and a few tears as well. Perhaps the film's biggest secret weapon is Nick Krause playing Woodley's friend. As a laconic and laid back surfer dude, Krause's scenes with Clooney have real impact. As an odd source of wisdom and support, he is a unique character in this piece.

"The Descendants," at the end of the day, is a quiet and thoughtful film. The film never plays up the huge emotional moments or strains for melodrama. It simply lets the characters exist as complex creations, with all their foibles and flaws in evidence. Its understated power, therefore, is all the more successful as it feels patently real. A treat for adult movie goers, 4 1/2 stars. KGHarris, 12/11.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
A comedy/drama about people coping with the irresolvable
By Whitt Patrick Pond
In a similar vein to his earlier film Sideways, Alexander Payne's The Descendants is a film about people coping. The difference here is that in this film they are coping with the unacceptable and irresolvable. Based on the novel of the same name by Kaui Hart Hemmings and adapted by Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Descendants deals with the problems of a man discovering that his wife, who is now in a coma from which she will not recover, was unfaithful to him, with all of the ripple effects that something like that can create.

Matt King (George Clooney) is a lawyer living on the island of Kaua'i in Hawaii. His wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is in a hospital where she lies in a coma resulting from a recent boating accident, and now Matt - who refers to himself as "the back-up parent" is suddenly thrust into the role of being the only parent to his two daughters, 17-year-old Alex (Shailene Woodley) and 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller), both of whom are exhibiting behavioral problems. To make matters worse, Matt is told that his wife is for all intents and purposes brain dead and will not recover and, in accordance with her wishes in her living will, must soon be taken off life support. And if that was not enough pressure to be under, Matt happens to be the sole trustee of a land trust worth hundreds of millions of dollars that he must soon make a decision on regarding its break-up and disposition, a decision of enormous interest to dozens of relatives who stand to benefit enormously from the sale of the land.

As Matt begins to let Elizabeth's friends and family know of her impending death, he learns from Alex that Elizabeth was having an affair with another man. Which leaves Matt having to deal with feelings of anger, betrayal, and confusion, with no way to resolve them because the person he needs to resolve them with is in a coma from which she will never recover.

Clooney does a deft turn as Matt, making him comical in the situations where he is clearly out of his depth and yet sympathetic as a man having to deal with anger and hurt seeking answers where there may not in fact be any. Shailene Woodley is outstanding, turning in a bravura performance as Alex who is caught in between: in between her mother and her father when she discovers her mother's affair, in between her mother and her younger sister whom she tries to protect from the truth, in between her father and her boyfriend Sid (Nick Krause) a genial slacker who unfortunately has the habit of saying clueless things that make people want to punch him in the face, and most of all, in between still being a child and being forced to be an adult by the situation they are all now in. Matthew Lillard's Brian Speer, the real estate agent whom Elizabeth was having an affair with, is an interesting casting choice, putting a likeable character actor in an unsympathetic role. Lillard gives Speer just the right touch, a guy who isn't truly villainous, just foolish. Which is part of the problem for Matt. There are no real villains in the situation, no matter how much he and Alex and Elizabeth's blunt bull-headed father (Robert Forster) want there to be. There are only people who make unfortunate choices, the consequences of which are left to others to deal with.

The Hawaiian setting is interesting in how it's presented, not showing just the usual idyllic version most people have of Hawaii as an island paradise but the current day side of things where rampant development has made much of it just like anywhere else, visually reinforcing a point Matt makes in the film's opening narration:

"My friends think that just because we live in Hawaii, we live in paradise. We're all just out here sipping Mai Tai's, shaking our hips and catching waves. Are they insane? Do they think we're immune to life? How can they possibly think our families are less screwed up? Our heartaches, less painful? Our cancers less deadly? ... Paradise? Paradise can go f[***] itself."

Note: fair warning to parents. There's a lot of profanity in this movie and about half of it comes from the two girls, Alex and Scottie.

Highly recommended for the performances and for not submitting to the usual easy Hollywood resolution.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
A Poignant Depiction of a Family in Crisis
By Bonnie Brody
The Descendants, a movie starring George Clooney, is the best film I've seen all year. It is adult-themed, realistic and poignant. The dialogue seems real, the acting is superb and the photography of Hawaii is spellbindingly beautiful. The story is about Matt King, descended from Queen Kamehameha many generations back. He and his family have inherited quite a bit of land for which Matt is the executor and they are in the process of selling it. The proceeds will go to Matt and his cousins. Despite having wealth, Matt has lived frugally, to the point where one might question his motives. His wife, Joanie, has just been severely injured in a boating accident and is comatose. It is unlikely that she ever will wake up and her living will is very explicit that she wants her life support pulled.

Matt has two daughters, Scottie and Alex. Alex is 17 and a handful. As the film opens, she is in a private school that may also be a rehab facility. Scottie, about 12, is acting out at school and at home since her mother's injury. Matt is clueless about how to raise his two daughters alone and has been very distant from his family spending most of his time working at his law practice. The crisis with Joanie is forcing him to be a primary parent and the film is excellent in showing Matt's development as a father.

Matt goes to Oahu to pull Alex from school and bring her home. She is furious at her mother, having found out recently that she was having an affair. She tells her father and the two become co-conspirators in finding Joanie's lover and confronting him. Matt is flabbergasted about the affair. The marriage has not been going well but he had no suspicions that his wife loved another man.

George Clooney is excellent in his part as are the two girls. The movie poignantly shows how the family starts pulling together into a semblance of a loving unit. The dialogue is fresh and real, not for the faint of heart or for those who mind cursing. I have not read the book so I can't compare the two but on its own merits, this film is a real winner.