Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
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.
The Descendants is a quietly affecting family drama elevated substantially by George Clooney's nuanced, restrained performance and strong supporting work from Shailene Woodley in her breakout role. The plot is engaging but somewhat meandering — the road trip to confront the affair partner works emotionally but doesn't always cohere narratively. Alexander Payne's direction brings a distinctly bittersweet tone and makes good use of Hawaii as more than mere backdrop, though the cinematography is functional rather than visually distinguished. The film occupies familiar grief-and-family-dysfunction territory and doesn't radically reinvent it, though Payne's dry wit and tonal control give it a recognizable voice. The ending is restrained and earned — a quiet domestic image that resists false resolution — fitting for the film's overall register.