Directed by Alexander Payne, ‘The Descendants’ is a movie about a land baron who wishes to reconnect with his two children after being left by his wife who got into a terrible boat accident.
After a seven year hiatus, this director of ‘Sideways’ makes a great comeback with this new film which stars George Clooney. He plays the role of a seemingly uninvolved father who suddenly had to face the responsibility of raising his two daughters while his wife is waiting to recover from a coma. The lines of George Clooney sums up all the wisdom that comes with it, “I’m the backup character, the understudy.” This was just the perfect words to describe how he has to shoulder suddenly the sole responsibility of raising their kids.
Clooney remains to be a highly charismatic presence in the big screen and with this subtle yet emotionally layered performance; this could probably make him deserve an Oscar. Other stars who are in the film just like Shailene Woodley gave a superb performance too along with Judy Greer who has always been reliable when it comes to doing amazing supporting roles.
The film is one sensitive movie that is full of intelligence and sensitivity. It is one film that will move you with its meaningful messages behind and its characters that are all very human. The humor you will find in the film is not as consistent as the one that you find in ‘Sideways’ and this is something that is not as good as that. You would find some minor lags and the slacker boyfriend of the character of Alex seemed to be just a cliché.
But overall, one can say that it is still a very good film to see. It is packed with tiny nuggets of wisdom that you would be grateful of discovering as you would only find them in tiny, intimate scenes from the movie. One thing is for sure with those precious moments: it will surely stay with you even after the credits have gone up for the movie.