Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE DESCENDANTS

Friday, December 2, 2011

THE DESCENDANTS

84th Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

Dramatic comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
George Clooney: Matt King, a real-estate lawyer
Patricia Hastie: his wife Elizabeth
Amara Miller: their 10-year-old daughter Scottie
Shailene Woodley: Scottie’s 17-year-old year sister Alexandra
Mary Birdsong: Matt’s neighbour Kai Mitchell
Rob Huebel: her husband Mark
Nick Krause: Alex’s stoner friend Sid
Robert Forster: Matt's father-in-law Scott
Beau Bridges: Matt's cousin Hugh
Judy Greer: Julie Speer
Matthwe Lillard: her real estate husband Brian

REVIEW
Carefully balancing comedy with family drama provides for a very enjoyable film experience that mirrors real life. And so we buy into it. With a well developed story line, the complexities of the situation never get muddled nor confusing.

It’s nice to see Clooney actually do some real acting for a change rather than just being himself in some mindless caper with his buddies. The man can do it. However the supporting cast are no slouches either, especially Miller and Woodley. Hopefully we’ll see more of them in the future.

As an added bonus we get to see the real Hawaii, not just the stunning locations such as the iconic Waikiki Beach with Diamond Head in the background but also the more mundane downtown Honolulu, surburbia and the undeveloped rural areas. You can see why it’s called “paradise”.

CLASSIFICATION

for language including some sexual references.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.