Moving more than Real Estate Prices

Coming off the likes of The American and the Ides of March, George Clooney as the mild-mannered contemplative Matt King makes you shake your head in disbelief at the sheer breadth of his acting talent. While Matt and his cousins are inheritors of a huge fortune in Hawaii – 25,000 acres of land that the former is likely to sell off for a huge sum of money, Matt’s life is anything but picture-perfect. With deliberate incongruity against the backdrop of beautiful Hawaii, director Alexander Payne shows us Matt’s estranged daughters 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller) and 17-year-old Alex (Shailene Woodley), a comatose and terminally ill wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), and the overtones of a life full of myriad regrets. The Descendants is about reconnecting with family and friends, and with one’s own values, and coming to terms with one’s own failings – including coming to know that the terminally ill wife was in a relationship, and then vacillating in a whirlwind of emotions between hatred and eventually coming to terms. And that is what the movie is eventually about – coming to terms with one’s realities so that one can shoulder the responsibilities for one’s future. Eventually, this movie does not move the Hawaii real estate market, but will definitely move the viewer. Quite exceptional - the best movie I have seen in a while

16/20