Occasionally a movie is released that you really want to
see. For whatever reasons, you just
don’t find time to make it to the theater until it is too late. This happens to me about four or five times a
year. This is the case with The Descendants. To be truthful, I don’t even remember when it
was out and I definitely don’t remember seeing show times for it at the
theater. Somehow, I just missed it. Lucky for me, there is cable television.
At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much to The Descendants. It is just a nice little movie with George
Clooney set in a beautiful Hawaiian locale.
There is a sad story; Clooney’s wife was in a boating accident, is in a
coma, and isn’t going to recover. Matt
King (Clooney) has to deal with that reality and he has to connect with two
daughters, to whom he hasn’t been much of an active parent over the years. A nice little story but nothing special.
Then WHAM!!! A
twist. I don’t think I am giving
anything away with this. It is part of
the given premise of the film. Some may
consider it a spoiler but it is actually what the whole film is about – this
twist. King finds out as he is preparing
for his wife’s death, from his rebellious teen age daughter no less, that his
wife had been having an affair prior to her accident. King’s world falls apart. The movie then follows his journey, and that
of his girls, as he tries to find the man and bring closure to the situation,
for his own piece of mind.
The theme isn’t the most happy, perky story ever told but it
is honest and real. There are some
lighter moments and some nice humor but not so much as to be inappropriate to
the overall mood of the picture. Clooney
is at his best – angry, hurt, confused.
He begins forming relationships with his daughters though he has little
clue on how to do this. He even seeks
advice from his daughter’s semi-idiotic boyfriend (or maybe just boy
friend). It turns out there is more to
the boy, Sid (Nick Krause) than King thinks.
Shailene Woodley is terrific as the oldest daughter, Alex, whose
maturity surprises her father and helps him through this tough time. There is a side story that is kind of
intriguing that ties into the main plot but I will leave some mystery for those
who haven’t seen the movie yet.
Sometimes the best movies are those that are just snapshots
of the lives of relatively normal people - a snapshot of a crisis in their lives,
maybe the only exceptionally interesting time of their lives. This is the human element of films - the
dramas that each and every one of us experience in our lives at some
point. The fact that the situation, the
crises itself is unique, and probably doesn’t resemble specific in our own
lives, doesn’t matter. It is the
recognition that the people on the screen are dealing with a crises in their
lives, just like we all do. That is the
connection we make with the movie.
The Descendants is
a terrific drama. It won some shiny
awards for writing and acting and they were well deserved. There aren’t any car chases and nothing blows
up but that was all right. This movie
flew by for me. I fell into the story
that easily. It is not appropriate for
all audiences as there is some adult language and sensitive children could be
bothered by the prevailing premise. If
you see this film pop up on your favorite cable movie channel, or Net Flix, to
yourself a favor and watch it. If you
like dramas, you will love this film.
Follow me on twitter @jawsrecliner. Thanks for reading.
