There is something very real about the characters in The Descendants that makes this a very different Alexander Payne movie. In the past, a lot of the characters in his films have been caricatures like Kathy Bates and Dermot Mulroney’s characters in About Schmidt  or even Reese Whiterspoon as Tracy Flick in Election. These characters were un-relatable but the characters in The Descendants are real and dealing with real-life and the stuff that comes with it.

The basic premise of the movie is that George Clooney plays Matt King, a lawyer in Hawaii, whose wife was in a boating accident and now lies in a coma, to which she will SPOILER ALERT not wake up from. He has two daughters, 17-year old Alex (Shailene Woodley) and 10-year old Scottie (Amara Miller) who are each dealing with their mother’s situation in different ways. Later it is revealed that the mother was having an affair unbeknownst to Matt. There is a sub-plot about how Matt’s family owns a very big chunk of land on one of the Hawaiian islands and the decision whether or not to sell this land. If they sell, it would make him and his cousins very rich.

The sub-plot helps propel the message of the importance of family and ties in how the tragedy with Matt’s wife brings him closer together with his daughters.

That was one of the things that I loved about this film. Clooney and Woodley had amazing father-daughter chemistry together. It was great seeing them work together to discover the identity of the man who was having the affair with his wife.

As I mentioned this movie felt very real with everyone giving very real performances in terms of how you are supposed to react in certain situations. Clooney’s Matt, after discovering his wife’s affair, just lays into her as you should be but then switches back to concerned father/husband in front of his kids and family and friends.

Same goes for Woodley she goes from petulant teen towards her mother to one that wants to seek forgiveness before she dies. Some of the decisions that had to made around his wife’s care is what people everyday in that situation have to face -it was real and heartbreaking especially when you see the wife in bed after the machines have been unplugged -there was no sugarcoating how she looks. This is what people look like in that situation.

There are fine supporting turns from Robert Forester as Matt’s father-in-law and Judy Greer as SPOILER ALERT the wife of the man that Matt’s wife was having an affair with.

One of the most interesting things about The Descendants is the use of Hawaii. I love the opening narration of George Clooney talking about how people think you are lucky if they find out you live in Hawaii that it must be like living in paradise 24/7 but actually living in Hawaii is like living anywhere else in the world. The same shit happens in supposed paradise as in the rest of the world.