The Descendants (2011)

A land baron tries to re-connect with his two daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident.

Director:

Alexander Payne

Writers:

Alexander Payne (screenplay), Nat Faxon (screenplay),

Stars:

George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller

Won 1 Oscar. Another 51 wins & 82 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
George Clooney	...	Matt King
Shailene Woodley	...	Alexandra King
Amara Miller	...	Scottie King
Nick Krause	...	Sid
Patricia Hastie	...	Elizabeth King
Grace A. Cruz	...	Scottie's Teacher
Kim Gennaula	...	School Counselor
Karen Kuioka Hironaga	...	Barb Higgins
Carmen Kaichi	...	Lani Higgins
Kaui Hart Hemmings	...	Matt's Secretary Noe
Beau Bridges	...	Cousin Hugh
Matt Corboy	...	Cousin Ralph
Matt Esecson	...	Cousin Hal
Michael Ontkean	...	Cousin Milo
Stanton Johnston	...	Cousin Stan

Storyline

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 the man who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.

---

Plot Keywords:

daughters | boating accident | affair | coma | lawyer | 

---

Genres:

Comedy | Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language including some sexual references

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 December 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Los descendientes

Filming Locations:

Lihue Airport - 3901 Mokulele Loop, Lihue, Kaua'i, Hawaii, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$7,345,720 (USA) (18 November 2011)

Gross:

$82,624,961 (USA) (27 April 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox Searchlight Pictures, Ad Hominem Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Datasat SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Elizabeth's Punahou School diploma is briefly shown in a closeup. Located in Honolulu, Punahou School is the largest private school in the United States. It was built in 1841 and added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1972. Barack Obama graduated from the Punahou School in 1979.

---

Goofs

When Matt meets Brian for the first time in the beach house, Brian is wearing a blue and white checkered shirt. While talking alone in the kitchen, the back collar of the shirt goes from folded up to down between shots.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Matt King: My friends on the mainland think just because I live in Hawaii, I live in paradise. Like a permanent vacation. We're all just out here sipping Mai Tais, shaking our hips, and catching waves. Are they insane?

---

Connections

Referenced in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #2.22 (2011)

---

Soundtracks

"Hapuna Sunset"
Written and Performed by Charles Michael Brotman
Courtesy of Palm Records

User Reviews

Was honestly expecting more

This is a great movie, no doubt about it. But given the combination of golden globe, Oscar buzz and positive feedback on IMDb, I expected much more.

The story and the premise of the movie is perfect. In fact, the tagline caught my attention enormously: "trying to reconnect with daughters." That is exactly the type of movie I like. Instantly, I could tell this was a movie about character development and human connection, usually the type of movies with the greatest potential.

Unfortunately, it was merely decent, but not special. It felt like the movie built up so much potential, but failed to release it at a certain point during the movie. The whole movie, for me, felt too introductory in nature. Not necessarily the plot, because the plot does evolve, but the overall "feel" of the movie felt preliminary to a bigger and more dramatic event which never happened.

It's not easy to explain my feelings towards the movie because the fault wasn't necessarily technical or specific. But it did linger around and distracted my viewing somewhat. I felt like there was still more to explore in both Clooney's character and the character of his daughters. Also, I think this element alone impacted on Clooney's performance. His performance was good, definitely, but again, because I felt like there was more to be explored, naturally, I also felt like his performance could have been added to (but not necessarily improved).

Given the Oscar buzz of this movie, I have to compare it to other movies of a similar nature. And unfortunately, I didn't feel like there was sufficient connection between the characters...although the potential to reach that connection was established, it was not acted upon in my opinion. Unfortunately I have to say there have been better developed "re-establishing connection" movies.

In summary, this is an enjoyable movie, but it is missing some important elements which deteriorates the viewing experience to some extent.