The Descendants (film): Difference between revisions

''[[The Descendants]]'' is a 2011 dramedy film, directed by [[Alexander Payne]] and based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The film stars [[George Clooney]] as a Hawaii based lawyer. When his wife is in a boating accident and is left in a coma, he has to care for his daughters on his own, despite knowing little about them, while fighting a breakdown when he's told his wife's living will demands she be taken off life support. When one of his daughters reveals that his wife was cheating on him, he begins a journey with his daughters (and one of his daughter's '"friends'") to find the man, partially to confront him and partially to tell him he should come say goodbye before she dies.

The film is Alexander Payne's first film since 2004's ''[[Sideways]]'' and has been extremely well received by critics, with particular praise given to Clooney's performance and the well written screenplay (partly written by [[Community|Jim Rash]], [[Hidden Depths|who knew?]]).

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Cousin Hugh is a friendly and nice guy (he's played by Beau Bridges for god's sake). He also makes it clear that if Matt {{spoiler|doesn't sell the land, he will come after him legally}}. Matt even [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s this in his narration:

{{quote| Don't be fooled. In Hawaii some of the most powerful people look like bums and stuntmen.}}

* [[Converse Withwith the Unconscious]]: Matt encourages lots of people to visit and speak to Elizabeth while she is in the hospital, and before bringing in the kids he has one last fight with her. Played with in that {{spoiler|Matt already knows for some time that Elizabeth's condition will not improve, and in fact will only decline as time passes, so her death is inevitable. He still publicly speaks in hopeful terms for most of the movie, mostly to avoid awkward conversations}}.

* [[Dude, Not Funny]]: In-Universe example. Sid laughs uncontrollably at Elizabeth's mother's dementia. Her father eventually punches him in the face.

* [[Good Adultery, Bad Adultery]]: Played with; Matt angrily shouts down one of his wife's friends when she tries to justify the affair with the "she was lonely" excuse, and while it's suggested she did have sympathetic motives to some degree it's also made clear that her actions were still selfish and damaging to her family.

* [[Shout -Out]]: At the end the family watches ''March Of The Penguins'' together. Bonus: the scene that they are watching features [[Morgan Freeman]] narrating about how Antarctica was once a tropical paradise, and slowly moved south and became covered in ice as the tectonic plates shifted. Matt and his kids live in the tropical paradise of [[Hawaii]]. Nothing lasts forever...

{{quote| '''Kai''': Your marriage...she was lonely.<br />