The Descendants

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Movie Details

• Genre: Drama
• Release Date: 2011-12-09 Limited
• Running Time: 115 min.
• Director: Alexander Payne
• Cast: George Clooney, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard, Robert Forster, Shailene Woodley, Mary Birdsong, Nick Krause, Amara
• Producer: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
• Writer: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
• Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
• Official Site: The Descendants Official Site

Why has it taken Alexander Payne seven years to follow up on Sideways? And what's blunted this gifted writer-director's edge? Payne's earlier movies have been driven by richly flawed characters — Reese Witherspoon's monstrous high school striver in Election, Jack Nicholson's thoroughly unpleasant widower in About Schmidt, the matched pair of jerks who stumble through Sideways—and Payne's great talent was extracting a sense of sympathy even for them. But in The Descendants, it's more a case of bad things happening to good people: Honolulu lawyer Matt King (George Clooney), prosperous scion of a Hawaiian family, is humbled by a flurry of body blows. A waterskiing mishap has landed Matt's wife in a coma. His two daughters, the pre-teen Scottie (Amara Miller) and echt teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley), are beyond his command, with Alexandra in possession of information to further rock her father's world: "Dad, Mom was cheating on you!" Adding to Matt's responsibilities, as well as providing a corollary to the personal history upended by Elizabeth's infidelity, is the decision he must make, as head of the King family trust, to sell or bequest a large tract of beachfront property. The two narrative strands entwine when Matt discovers that his wife's lover is actually vacationing adjacent to the very spot where he will be meeting with his clan to finalize the disposition of their legacy. Cosmic coincidence or crafty plot contrivance? Slowly rolling downhill, The Descendants takes a turn or two but is basically always en route toward the reconciliation that's a foregone conclusion.