Week 49: The Descendants

Boy, Deb's right.  We are behind on our posts.  Here's to knocking two out the same day.  Note that this reveiw has slight spoilers so if you want to see the movie first that might be a good idea. 

We saw The Descendants for week 49 with George Clooney as the main character followed by his daughter played by Shailene Woodley.  As Deb said, this movie was mainly about the relationship between these two characters.  The story is about a guy, George Clooney, who's dealing with the impending loss of his wife who was in a boating accident and also dealing with selling property that's part of this big family trust.  So there's sort of two different stories going on. Oh, and it was set in Hawaii which threw in an interesting perspective.

In the first story with his wife, he's working through this process of saying good bye and trying to manage his two daughters.  In dealing with his oldest daughter's anger towards his wife he finds out that his wife was having an affair and was thinking about leaving him.  A good chunk of the movie is about him dealing with this revelation.

This movie has a heavy feel with serious topics but not a lot of drama.  And there was a lot of comic relief in just the right places.  It reminds me of 50/50 a little bit in the sense that if an "average" person was thrown in this situation this is how they might actually deal with it.  It didn't feel hollywoodized.  (I just made that word up.)  With George Clooney as the main guy you might not think it's possible to imagine an average guy with an average family but there were times where he actually did seem like an average guy.  I mean, it is George Clooney after all so of course you won't forget that but he intentionally wasn't as dashing in this one.     

I did think it was a good movie and one worth seeing but I was surprised in my lack of emotional connection with the characters.  I felt distanced from them when normally I'm sniffling right along with Deb.  I think this is mainly because of my personal hatred and dysfunction when it comes to infidelity and all things cheating.  Or maybe I just wasn't in a sappy mood.  Either way, it didn't touch me as much as some movies do.  But I think it probably would to the average person. 

To Sum it up: Serious topics, perfectly timed humor and good "almost made you forget the actor" acting.