Movie review about the descendants

Movie Review “ The Descendants” Introduction ” The Descendants” is a thought provoking story that involves individuals belonging to different age groups. The movie is a perfect blend of talent and script where the character of the father Matt King (played by George Clooney) is displayed in a different manner, how a transition occurs in his nature to establish harmonious relationship with his daughters, Alexandra, a teenager of 17 years (Played by Shailene Woodley) and Scottie, younger of 10 years (played by Amara Miller) after the tragic accidental death of his wife Elizabeth (played by Patricia Hastie). Often in films the sight of someone extremely happy is a token of what is yet to come and fears the worst.
The movie commences with an unforeseeable tragedy where Matt King lost his wife after hospitalization and now has to shoulder an enormous burden of being responsible for managing everything including the fund that has been entrusted to his family since 1860´s. Matt King is the descendant of one of the Hawaii’s most prominent families. Further distress to burden came when Matt King was told that his wife had an affair with Brian Speer (played by Matthew Lillard), The movie gyrates around the search for Speer as Matt wanted answers to some of his queries. Matt King hailed from beautiful Hawaii island and was the owner of immense property which he wanted to sale off, his rebellious daughter stops him. As Hawaii is known for the traditional predisposition so the movie also revolves around the traditional and emotional touch. However, the director Alexander Payne is known for his brilliant plots and marvellous direction he did not let the audience move out in grief and brought the story to end at the happy note.
Reviewers views
The movie offered a lot or scope to understanding about worldly matters, family bonding, impact of loss and pain and therefore it was appreciated to a great extent by various individuals and critics and people gave their reviews depending upon their individual outlook.
According to Ebert (2011) who is admirer of Hawaii, as he had been to the land a number of times, ” inhabitants of Hawaii are serious about their customs and traditions and very protective for their land”. In his review he highlighted ” business, finances and emotions”. As per his view, ” Matt King is one of the Hawaiis first white land-owning families who have to fix between opening up a vast tract of virgin forest on Kauai to tourist and condo development”. The tragedy happened at this important junction.
Ebert (2011) reviewed more on the worldly matters that the movie displayed through Matt King and how these worldly matters brought the family together at first place due to the tragic demise of Elizabeth and second due to the property matters.
On the other hand another review provided by Stevens (2011), focuses more on traditional family, children, bonding of the family and close knitting of family, strength that family bonding gathered due to demise of Elizabeth, single parenting etc. Stevens perception about the movie is different he correlated how world changes in seconds as he highlighted many moments such as ” The movie shows Elizabeth laughing in the boat just before the crash and this turns out to be last moment of her life”.
Stevens highlighted the significance of mother in the review by emphasizing the fact told by Clooney (Matt King), ” I am the backup parent” (Stevens, 2011). Stevens (2011) considered most of the emotional and natural aspects of the movie such as moments that were ” fun filled or touched everyones heart or it is related to the description of natural beauty of the Hawaii”. Matt is portrayed as a highly protective father who does not allow his daughters to share any family issues with any outsider. Sid, a dim-witted teenage tried to lend a supporting shoulder to Alexandra which was not appreciated by Matt.
According to Stevens (2011), ” the movie is a confrontation of painful truth, loss and grief, yet there is a curious brittleness about it”. Alexander Payne has tried to bring smile and laughter all around by keeping a few comedy sequences also. One of the funniest scenes in the movie is where ” Matt’s father-in-law (played by Robert Foster) punches him on the face. His social capabilities at times seem so immature, yet he manages to demonstrate flashes of his own crude wisdom”.
Personal Opinion
I personally feel that movie is a perfect blend of business and emotional aspects, is close heart and make the audience aware about the knitty-gritty of life also how minor issues could turn out to be devastating and life changes in seconds. However, the story is not all murkiness and gloom, or a teenage family drama, the movie could gather crowd because of Clooneys natural acting with perfect emotions devotion for his wife and daughters, else the movie is not at all a different story from the routine stuff; still Clooneys acting is enough to keep the audience hooked. I believe ” The Descendants” is a tragic-comedy combination. At some juncture the movie was intense and filled everyone with grim while things settle down in the end happily. I would personally recommend only to those who like to witness family affairs and emotional drama but I would not recommend this movie to those who seek movie as a source of relaxation and entertainment.
Works Cited
Ebert, R. ” The Descendants”. 2011. Web. 25 Jun. 2012.
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Stevens, D. ” The Descendants”. 2011. Web. 25 Jun. 2012.
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