The Descendants does a great job of dealing with a variety of complex emotions. It manages to maintain a lighthearted feel, despite the dark and depressing subject matter. Each one of the performances feels genuine and heartfelt, and I felt myself getting caught up in it all. This definitely deserved the Academy Award nomination.

This is a great film about a man who tries to reconnect with his daughters and sort things out after his wife is critically injured in a boating accident. Alexander Payne has surely become a voice to be reckoned with, and each new film of his brings about a new layer of complexity to his work. George Clooney manages to show us that he indeed a good actor when in his element and both Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller are exceptional as his daughters. The setting is gorgeous Hawaii and although this isn't a "visual" film per se there is a symphony of sorts between the emotions of the main characters and the seas and plains of Hawaii. This is one unmissable film.

The Descendants is a movie about a man in mid-life crisis and how he successfully manages to come out of it. Matt(GC) is the sole trustee of a huge piece of land and a lawyer. He has never really bothered to care about his two precocious daughters, Scotti and Alexandra, 10 and 17 respectively. The problem arises when his wife suffers a brutal head injury because she was adventurous enough to ride a motorboat. This is when things take a downturn for Matt as he has to now take care of his daughters on his own. Meanwhile he also finds out that his wife was having an affair at the time of her accident. It crushes him and afterwards he decides to confront the culprit too. Clooney has give n a nice performance in thiis one. It is worth a watch!

So George Clooney plays a husband who hasn't paid attention to his family in years, so far that he states he hasn't taken care of his own daughter alone since she was 3. Of course he sees the errors of his ways only after his wife is in a terrible accident and ends up in a coma, from which she is not going to wake up.But then, surprise, he finds out she had a lover and man, why would she do that? I mean he has been an absent, distant, constantly working partner, how dare his wife find someone else who pays attention to her! (btw, sarcasm) Now his quest becomes to find this man, I mean he could take care of his children, figure out how to be a father, say goodbye to his wife, but no, he is gonna find his wife's lover. There is also a bit of plot about a land selling deal and George Clooney's character standing up to his family (cousins?) and not selling, the land, i don't know why that was in there.Also Scotty: was he supposed to the comedic relief? Was he supposed to be funny? Why is he there?