The Descendants

    The Descendants
    2011

    Synopsis

    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.

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    Cast

    • George ClooneyMatt King
    • Shailene WoodleyAlexandra King
    • Amara MillerScottie King
    • Nick KrauseSid
    • Patricia HastieElizabeth King
    • Grace A. CruzScottie's Teacher
    • Kim GennaulaSchool Counselor
    • Karen Kuioka HironagaBarb Higgins
    • Carmen KaichiLani Higgins
    • Kaui Hart HemmingsMatt's Secretary Noe

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Boxoffice Magazine

      The Descendants is that rare bird, moving, enlightening, funny and unapologetically human. It's one of the year's best pictures, one to savor and think about.
    • 100

      The Hollywood Reporter

      After a five-year wait since "Sideways," Alexander Payne has made his best film yet with The Descendants. Ostensibly a study of loss and coping with a tragic situation, this wonderfully nuanced look at a father and two daughters dealing with the imminent death of his wife and their mother turns the miraculous trick of possibly being even funnier than it is moving.
    • 100

      The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

      Heartwarming, tragic and, at times, hilariously funny drama.
    • 91

      IndieWire

      The Descendants constantly hovers on the brink of a dark comedy. But it never takes the big plug. By treading carefully, Payne has created his warmest, most earnest work, if not his best.
    • 90

      Variety

      Nearly every detail sources directly back to Kaui Hart Hemmings' sensitively crafted novel, and yet, Payne's triumph is in striking the right tone -- and knowing what to leave unsaid.
    • 88

      Slant Magazine

      In a development that seemed to begin in earnest with "Sideways," a large part of The Descendents seems to operate on a non-narrative level.
    • 80

      Salon

      The Descendants is gentle, witty, audience-friendly entertainment for grown-ups, with a great performance by one of our biggest screen stars.
    • 80

      New York Magazine (Vulture)

      Payne is too acerbic - maybe too much of an asshole - to settle for easy humanism. But he's too smart a dramatist to settle for easy derision. Mockery and empathy seesaw, the balance precarious - and thrillingly so. It's the noblest kind of satire: cruel and yet, in the end, lacking the killing blow.

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