Review of The Descendants (2011) by Metadiva — 11 Feb 2012

A "could have been" movie which failed miserably to redeem Clooney from his glory-seeking excesses. Clooeny's ego is way too big and jarring for this non-role in a non-story. He still has a long way to go to reach the class of actor-turned-director Clint Eastwood, who has enough true inner maturity and confidence to let fellow actors AND actresses shine through.

Clooney the over-aged Little Prince doesn't understand fatherly responsibility, nor what being a truly loving husband means. He confuses self-pity with signs of empathy. Being a pushed-around and self-indulgent even as one's life partner is about to die is just.

.a bore. The lead character is just a prolong case of poor me why is this happening to me - about having to face his much-neglected family females, being "bullied" by his daughter and her seemingly vacant bf (yet seeking his opinion on managing his daughter from the teen idiot).

Failure to assert entry-level parental authority at foul-mouthed teen children at a time when the family unit need it the most, is not adorable, nor does it score sympathy points. Scr3wing harmless relatives business agreement last minute self-righteously because one suddenly needs to feel some moral superiority about some grant notion is just super lame and NON-heroic.

There are other ways to show that one's suddenly a true noble, like saying nice sweet gentle romantic spiritual things to wife in coma for a change, instead of meddling in other people's family affair and attracting a angry jilted wife into the ward and create drama before the near-dead wife.

If he's a real man he should not allow the busybody daughter to drag him into a face-off with the non-consequential ex-lover of his neglected wife. The fact that Clooney's character was forced to grow from a psychological age of 15 to 18 because his wife has "abandoned" poor little self-involved him and leaving him with two difficult daughters and a huge fortune, or that he acts sort-of selfless trying to get wife's ex-fling to see her at her dead bed, doesn't make him a very interesting nor likeable person, nor does it make it a worthy story.

He is a petty little prince who spent more screen time spitting venom at his departing wife and her harmless best friend, than being nice to the wife, a caricature of a role who could not talk back at him or defend herself.

From start to end, it is about how HE feels, and not about HER. This is a man who is deeply interested in himself, which was supposedly the story problem, even as he pretends to care about something greater than himself as the story progresses.

At the end, it remained all about him, how tough it is to do basic father/hubby thing, and his petty little ego injury. Clooney's shallow performance of self-pity as "feelings" demanded so much screen time, even the potentially interesting Electra archetype daughter character failed to emote beyond 1-D sullen self-involved teen princess to a real 3D human female.

Still, her good looks plus at least five bikini changes, and lush beautiful Hawaii island scenes somewhat redeemed the boring subject of Clooney non-character and non-emotional journey.