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

Punishment and (then) Crime

Good guy Henry (Keanu Reeves) finds himself framed by “friends” – a fall guy for a bank robbery he did not commit, in Henry's Crime. Losing his wife, and three years of his life in jail, Henry returns to attempt the robbery he did not commit. His accomplices – fellow convict Max (James Caan), buddy Joe (Eddie Hoch), security guard Frank (Bill Duke), and the charming Julie (Vera Farmiga) who becomes the object of Henry’s affection. The plot is straightforward, with the attempt at drawing analogies to Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard’s themes of loss and moving on being applied to situations that are not entirely contextual. Reasonable fare with moments of genuine humor, and of thespian brilliance from the mercurial Julie

12/20