The Descendants

2011

Action / Comedy / Drama

71
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 79% · 264 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 79% · 50K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 258617 258.6K

daughter infidelity hawaii father-in-law beach house boating accident

Plot summary

With his wife Elizabeth on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron Matt King takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront a young real estate broker, who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.

Director

Alexander Payne Photo
Alexander Payne

Top cast

Morgan Freeman Photo
Morgan Freeman as Himself - Narrator
Rob Huebel Photo
Rob Huebel as Mark Mitchell
Mary Birdsong Photo
Mary Birdsong as Kai Mitchell
Matthew Lillard Photo
Matthew Lillard as Brian Speer
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
751.19 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 55 min
Seeds 20
2.12 GB
1920*800
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 55 min
Seeds 37

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by PeterToo 8 / 10

I lived a bit more: only then did I end up loving that movie

I watched it at the movies in 2011 and it was immediatly my least favorites of Clooneys', an actor I like; my least favorites of Paynes', a director, I owed so much great times.Then, I crossed its paths 2 or 3 times on tv for years, without much change but when I fully watched it again in full, alone, in 2025...it struck me as one my 10 key personal movies and stories.Movies are brilliant objects, they do not change but we evolve around them and one day, we either puzzle out or puzzle into them.That one eventually clicked, I saw characters, and not actors anymore: I had lived through some of the events and understood and felt a lot. Its writing and dialogues are mature and his subjects unique. We will all be concerned, if not already.
Reviewed by Samiam3 8 / 10

Competent all around, arguably a winning product for 2011

I hadn't seen so many elderly folks in a movie theatre, since I saw The King's Speech last year. I suppose there is a bit of irony in considering that a film called the Descendants has an audience of ancestors.The best thing about the movie however, is that I think it can be appreciated greatly by any adult age group, elder or not. There are laughs to be had and tears to be shed. The film centres around middle aged, Matt King; a Hawaiian land baron attempting to connect with his children with the knowledge that his comatose wife is at death's doorstep, and he knows that she had an affair before her accident. Meanwhile, he is under pressure from his network of cousins to sell his inherited land to the kind of real estate that wants to put up a seaside condo-mania. In essence, it's a recovery story. The formula is not entirely 'new' yet the somewhat paradoxical balance of refinement and dry humour are enough to elevate this to a very well rounded story. As far as drama comedies go, The Descendants is ideal.This may be George Clooney's best lead performance to date. I think it is the first role that doesn't require him to be slick or charismatic even for a moment. He is rather scruffy, but more importantly, he is human. Clooney brings range to the role, hitting all the right notes, funny and serious alike.I like the fact that even though we are on Hawaii (a photographer's paradise) the island doesn't look all that special. It's important that The islands look just as mundane to the audience as it would to the characters who inhabitant it. Most of the time it's cloudy, and low brow, except for the few moments where it is necessary to bring out the sunshine, as we stand on a cliffs edge with the King family overlooking dozens of acres of land which could very soon become merchandise.Another thing I like about the Descendents (which you don't see often) is an ending that is both happy and sad. Some say that great films are the ones that leave you wanting more. The Descendants did this to me, and it's probably the closest thing to a great film I've seen this year.
Reviewed by barnabyrudge 8 / 10

Languid exploration of love, loss and infidelity in paradise.

Director Alexander Payne has been quiet for several years, his last film being Sideways in 2004. Is he subscribing to the Stanley Kubrick and Terrence Malick philosophy of film-making, which basically states that you do absolutely nothing for years, then return with a masterpiece so that anyone who might forget is soon reminded how good you are? Payne certainly has some way to go before he can be mentioned in the same breath as those two greats. However, he is building an impressive body of work – Sideways we've mentioned already, but there's also About Schmidt, Election, Citizen Ruth…. and now The Descendants. A striking filmography by anyone's standards.A middle-aged woman skims across the sea in a motor boat, hair billowing behind her, laughing joyously. The very next scene finds the same woman comatose on a hospital bed, face bruised and swollen, tubes protruding from all over her body. Her husband Matt King (George Clooney) stands over her, grimly contemplating his lot in life. "Paradise?" he grunts bitterly. "Paradise can go f@ck itself!" Gradually, we learn that Matt is a wealthy lawyer who, due to a quirk of history, is the sole trustee of a sizable stretch of virgin Hawaiian coast. Despite his wealth, his relationship with his wife and kids has grown increasingly remote. Now, her coma forces Matt to confront issues he has been hiding from for years. He suddenly finds himself responsible for ten year-old daughter Scottie (Amara Miller) and 17 year-old tearaway Alex (Shailene Woodley). On top of that is the fact that the whole family are due to meet imminently to discuss what to do with their piece of paradise. And as if that isn't enough, Matt finds himself on the receiving end of the ultimate bombshell - when Alex tells him she recently caught mom having an affair.The entire film is about Matt's long journey to resolution – how he resolves his wife's infidelity, his craving to re-connect with his kids, the fate of the land bequeathed to his family, the impending death of his wife, etc. In typical Payne fashion, the story never follows the expected course. It weaves quite wonderfully in various directions, never playing to convention yet never losing sight of the human drama at its core. Clooney demonstrates a surprising emotional range - quietly furious one moment, comically absurd the next – while Woodley as the eldest daughter is simply outstanding. The quality of the other acting is exceptional too… whatever else you think of The Descendants, it is certainly an immaculately acted film. Also admirable is the way the script manages to make Hawaii itself an integral "character" in the unfolding drama. It's been a long time since a story and a setting have complemented each other so consummately. The second half of the film - in which Matt tries to track down the realtor with whom his wife had her illicit affair - is slightly less compelling than the first. The story begins to sag in places, but at least Payne's off-kilter handling keeps things eminently watchable through these moments. Some viewers may be put off by the film's intentionally slow place, but in reality it is not so much a slow movie as a languid one, where events and characters are carefully developed in a way which feels convincing and honest. One has to be prepared to adjust to the pace, but once the film sinks its hook into you it keeps you absorbed all the way to its bittersweet final shot.
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