The Descendants Movie Reviews

Seldom do movies make the struggle to keep a dysfunctional family together seem so sobering and lucid. Beautifully shot, exquisitely written and featuring an excellent turn from George Clooney, The Descendants features a narrative that persistently subverts your expectations to almost hypnotic levels. Alexander Payne is a gifted, thoughtful filmmaker, unafraid to tackle difficult subjects, and his latest is his most engaging, most accessible film to date

The fifth feature by Alexander Payne (whose earlier films Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt and Sideways were never released here), The Descendants is an indelible portrait of loss and self-discovery. Based on the acclaimed debut novel by the Hawaiian author Kaui Hart Hemmings, the serio-comic family drama focuses on a prosperous middle-aged lawyer (Clooney). The sole trustee of a vast plot of land inherited from his descendants

One of the most striking moments in 'The Descendants' is when George Clooney's character Matt King stumbles onto the secret that his wife has been cheating on him. He puts on a pair of floppy loafers, then runs clumsily over to their friends' home in his neighbourhood in Hawaii. Matt is frantically seeking answers - who is the other man? Since when has this been carrying on? Did she love him? Answers that his wife, lying comatose on a hospital bed, can't give him

The timing for this one's India release could not have been more apt: The Descendants made to the list of this year's Academy Award nominations in three distinct categories -- Best Picture, Best Director (Alexander Payne) and Best Actor (George Clooney) just two days back. For the record, it has already won the Golden Globes for the Best Film and Best Actor category. And here's why. When George Clooney plays single dad to a grown-up irreverent teenage daughter Alexandra

Among many things, The Descendants is a film of infinite surprises and of breezy calm that is usually associated with seaside towns. The central paradox is the way in which director Alexander Payne places the inner turmoil, the emotional storms of his characters against an unusual choice of location, Hawaii ? laidback and affluent, visibly but not condescendingly. Early on, Matt King (George Clooney), a lawyer-land owner, perfectly settled into middle-aged complacency

In a voiceover at the beginning of The Descendants, Matt King (George Clooney) challenges the myth, endemic among mainlanders, that Hawaii, where he lives, is a paradise on earth. His brief rant is buttressed by images of poverty and grime that are powerful but also slightly misleading, since Matt’s story is not — or at least not explicitly — one of deprivation or social inequality. Though he is a bit uncomfortable about admitting it

Real estate titan Matt King is a troubled man. Yes, he lives in Hawaii and has George Clooney looks but the middle-aged workaholic’s mind is occupied by the implications of his wife Elizabeth being in a coma. Far from being the perfect spouse, the outdoor sports obsessed Elizabeth received her injury in a boating accident. But Matt informs us in a voiceover that his role towards his daughters Alexandra (Woodlie) and Scottie (Miller) was largely that of “the backup parent”