The Descendants User Reviews

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About

A wealthy land-owner Matt King (George Clooney) struggles to keep his 10 year old daughter, Scottie (Amara Miller) under control following the tragic boating accident of his now coma-stricken wife Elizabeth. Deciding he needs help, he brings home his hostile teenage daughter Alex (Shailene Woodley), who drops a huge bombshell .. Elizabeth was having an affair. With the help of Alex, he sets out to find the other man, with only a name: Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard) to go by.

Good

This is a movie dealing with real themes, with solid acting lead by the fantastic George Clooney, who carries this movie very well indeed. His body language, his facial expressions. It's all there and it work. The shining star however is Shailene Woodley, who is simply hypnotic when portraying the gritty, sad scenes, she demands attention and boy does she get it, an excellent young talent who has great father/daughter chemistry with Clooney, so well in-fact that you kinda forget they're acting. I could even dare to add that she should've received an Oscar nod.. The supporting cast of Judy Greer and Matthew Lillard are solid too, despite not much screen time in comparison to others, especially Judy Greer, she makes herself memorable.

Bad

I guess the main thing is that I was kind of expecting there to be more emotion from the film, there was plenty of it yes but when dealing with themes of loss, love, infidelity, I felt the tone should have been amped up to where I, as the audience, could personally feel sadness and like I was in there shoes. I expected more from Clooney, he was solid but he could have easily gave so much more to his role. An emotional breakdown, at least a flood of tears, c'mon!

Overall

In all fairness, it was so refreshing to see a film like this shine from the mindless over-exposure of summer blockbusters and be lifted into a story of realism and family ties. It had a mixed tone of feel-good and drama which worked in its favour. Excellently Directed by Alexander Payne, his skill in capturing the bittersweet sadness of the story is great to see. I'd recommend this for film lovers, definitely.