The Descendants is a funny, well acted, and fantastically directed film by the great Alexander Payne (Sideways, About Schmidt). This is the type of movie that a majority of critics will eat up around Oscar time- and the praise that it‘s getting is well deserved. Much like Payne’s other films, The Descendants is a realistic character driven drama, and at times, doesn’t even seem scripted. George Clooney stars as Matt King, a rich landowner living in Hawaii who is disconnected from his family, and he and his two daughters are brought together again when a boating accident leaves his wife in a coma. The doctors are unsure whether she’ll make it through or not, so they inform King to make sure that her family and friends are aware of the situation so that they can say goodbye to her if worse comes to worse. Things get worse for King learns from his older daughter Alexandra that his wife had been cheating on him.
