The Descendants

[Steve Williams]

I saw this film yesterday as it won Best Motion Picture-Drama as well as Best Actor-Drama for George Clooney at the recent Golden Globes Awards. The Golden Globes often make correct predictions in the Academy Awards in February and so I had to see this much hyped film to determine if it can truly unseat my prediction of Jean Dujardin from the Artist as Best Actor and either The Help or The Artist as best film of the year.

Well suffice it to say it was an OK film to see but not IMHO the Movie of The Year, nor is George Clooney Best Actor. Don't get me wrong. I like George Clooney. He is very talented, a good (but not great) actor, one of Hollywood's great leading men and certainly a great humanitarian. However this film just isn't in the same league as The Help or The Artist

A very simple story line......


A land baron tries to re-connect with his two daughters after his wife suffers a boating accident. With his wife Elizabeth on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron Matt King (Clooney) takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront the young real estate broker, who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.

The film is a comedic-drama which will have you laughing and other times with a slight lump in your throat. It was also filmed completely in Hawaii which is always beautiful to see. The movie is just under 2 hours.

Worth seeing but just it's not Best Picture or Best Actor material

 

[Mike]

I saw this with my girlfriend and her mom. Both were crying through the movie. I liked the movie. It's worth seeing.

 

[jazdoc]

Two hours of my life I'm never getting back. I thought it was very unoriginal. Only redeeming quality was the scenery. Indicative of how poor 2011 was for movies.

 

[NorthStar]

I like 'The American' directed by Anton Corbijn. George was pretty cool in that one.

 

[Mike]

I didn't know that Anton Corbijn was a director. I remember him as a photographer for the New Musical Express.

 

[rsbeck]

I Have really enjoyed other films made by director Alexander Payne.

Sideways is one of my all-time favorites, Election was interesting and original, About Scmidt was weird and enjoyable.

For me, this film went nowhere and had nowhere to go.

It aimed for a "smiling through your tears" approach, but it neither made me smile nor did I feel like it earned a lump in my throat, much less tears.

I kept waiting for something interesting to happen to hook me into some sort of story, but I just kept waiting and then it ended.

I found much of it implausible as well as uninteresting and for me, that's a bad combo.

I also felt like if you're going to try for this kind of tone, George Clooney is probably a bad choice. In some movies, Clooney seems to want to be a version of Cary Grant. In this one, I felt he was trying his best and failing to do William Holden. This seems to be one of his stock characters that he uses for certain films. It has worked in other films, but in my opinion, not this one. Not all his fault, though, because I think this material asks a lot of the actor in order to keep this balloon inflated.

The saving grace of this film, if there is one, is the performance by Shailene Woodley as Clooney's daughter. Despite being given her own dose of implausible material, she is fresh and though we've all seen this character quite often in other films and TV shows, she manages to breathe some life into this cadaver.

This film didn't do enough to poke my nerves and make me resent it, but it did nothing to entertain me, either.

I could go on but I would need to go further into the plot, such as it is, to explain where I think it went wrong or what it could have done better. A lot of people seem to enjoy this film so I don't want to post any spoilers unless a further discussion warrants it.

 

[Steve Williams]

I thought it was exactly how you described it Bob. What a waste of 2 hours of my time and for him to get an Oscar nomination for the role. Puhleeeze