The Descendants

I’m still ill. I still feel rotten. I’m still sleeping ridiculous amounts every day. However, today I feel even worse than I normally do because much to my delight I was woken up by endless banging, clanging and drilling. Builders have taken over my garden. My bedroom overlooks the garden. They’ll be here for the next three weeks. Good times for me. Subsequently I haven’t been able to nap for long as they’re too bloomin’ loud, so instead I watched a film. The Descendants to be precise.

As I’ve said in previous posts I’m not normally one to enjoy films that are nominated for Oscars. I like your stereotypically girly films where you don’t have to use your brain: see Legally Blonde, 500 Days of Summer, Mary Poppins and The Notebook. But I genuinely enjoyed and found myself lost in The Descendants. A lot of people I know who have seen it said that they cried. That’s the main reason I watched it today, I wanted a reason to cry. Ironically, I found myself laughing more at the daughter’s one-liners throughout the film than I did crying over the tragic death of their mother. Although, to be fair, those laughs often came teamed with a bitter sting. And although I found the film to be at times funny, it was constantly tragic, realistic and never exaggerative.

The story is set in Hawaii where Matt King (George Clooney) is a land baron, who has to decide whether to keep the last plot of land that he owns after inheriting it from his Great-Great-Grandmother (who was a Hawaiian Princess) or whether he should sell it off to developers. He also tries to re-connect with his two daughters after his wife; Elizabeth is involved in a boating accident which leaves her motionless in hospital in a coma. His eldest daughter; Alexandra informs him that his beloved wife was having an affair so he goes in search of the man whom it was with for answers.

George Clooney gives an honest and emotionally raw performance throughout the film and it comes as no surprise as to why he won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (drama). It opens with Clooney speaking “My friends on the mainland think that just because I live in Hawaii I live in paradise; like a permanent vacation, we’re all just out here sipping Mai Tais, shaking our hips and catching waves. Are they insane? Do they think we’re immune to life? How can they possibly think that our families are less screwed up, our Cancers less fatal, our heartaches less painful? Paradise? Paradise can go fuck itself.” This immediately got me thinking, and now, having watched the movie in its entirety I have come to a few conclusions;

• Bad things do still happen in “Paradise”. The film shows a more lived-in version of Hawaii, rather than the beautiful scenes we are constantly greeted with on postcards. Just because the exterior is beautiful it doesn’t mean that terrible things don’t happen, because they do and they undoubtedly will.


• Having an affair or cheating on someone is inexcusable. If you don’t love someone enough to merely stay faithful to them, then you shouldn’t be with them, nor do you deserve them.


• Some sorrows are unavoidable, such as grief. No amounts of picturesque beach surroundings or material luxury and wealth can protect you. It happens, to everyone.


• No matter how hard it may be, it really is better to forgive people for wrongs they have done. Everyone makes mistakes, after all.


• Don’t get too wound up over work, or work extortionate hours because you’ll miss out on things. Keep your work and social life in balance.

• And lastly, George Clooney is a bit of alright. Well, for an oldie anyway!