The Descendants

SPOILERS! Just a quick warning. Nothing to damaging though.

George Clooney is gives a riveting and achingly beautiful performance in this film about trust, lies, and the end of relationships. Clooney plays Matthew King, a descendant of the great King Kamehameha and sole trustee of a large plot of land on the island of Kauai. He's agreed to sell the land, but just as he does, his wife is involved in a serious boat accident. The narrative centers around the sell of the land and Matt trying to figure out the woman he never truly knew.

The film uses the unsoiled land that King is selling as something that everyone wants to happen. It's interesting how the plot develops going between Matt's realization that his wife has been cheating on him and the fact that his family is really pushing to sell the land. Along the way, Matt learns more about his children, wife, and family then he ever could have wished to know.

The Hawaiian setting is beautiful and peaceful, even though Matt King begins the story by narrating how many problems the people of Hawaii have and how it isn't different from anywhere else on Earth. This fact positions the long shots of the landscape as something that may belie it's looks. There is pain and complications hidden in the vast oceans and towering volcanoes and dense foliage. The land also serves as a visual metaphor for the family and their children that they are bearing. It is unsoiled by the masses and their problems, yet it is being put up for sale to be used by everyone. Something to be affected by everyone. Land, ownership, family honor, and trust are all themes explored by the metaphor of land in this film.

The selection of Matthew Lillard as the man who ends up stealing Matt's girl was a very good choice. His past acting in several films as the "laid back, friendly, unintelligent bro" was a character that this film had plenty of (Nick Krause's unforgettable portrayal of a typical "bro"). These past images remained in my mind and I love Matthew Lillard for these characters, but in this movie I was expecting as much. His acting was so unlike what I'm used to from him. Instead, he is a matured "bro" and he has regrets concerning the adultery he'd committed. The past stereotypes of Lillard conflicted with the image of a matured and regretful family man and this truly opened my eyes to another theme in the film: losers. Are they really just dumb or are they just like the rest of us? Prone to mistakes? I think so. The text outside of this film really made me understand the reason for having Lillard as such a large part of this movie in the final confrontation. Sid also becomes welcomed into Matt King's world when Matt finds him awake and discovers why he acts the way he does.

The Descendants is a truly funny, moving and truthful representation of life's surprises and the mess it creates when they are discovered.