Review of The Descendants (2011) by Damjan R — 27 Dec 2012

Tied together by a shoestring this is a tale of two films that are forced to co-exist without any reason. Clooney finds out his wife cheated on him while she's on her deathbed after a boating accident and tries to piece together his family life in which he hasn't been as active as we are led to believe.

His daughters (and Woodley's boyfriend) show amazing maturity and eloquence in this very trying time and kind of get him through it as quickly and as painlessly as possible. This rich emotional tapestry is ripped apart by the "big-money-wants-to-destory-motherland-beauty" storyline which ends up being a cliche festival, and is on top of that shoehorned in to the main plotline which as a result suffers from it.

Throw out the unnecessary broadening of the subject and we could have had an amazing film. Payne overwrites and underdirects this film as much as he can, but still seems to get great work from his actors which benefit from the longer shots and verbose dialogue.

It's ultimately a film that could have been really great but it falls short.