The Descendants review

 Number 939 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2011 comedy-drama 'The Descendants.'

Matt King (George Clooney) is an Hawaii-based attorney. While he is the sole trustee of his family's massive fortune, he has a strained relationship with his wife and children. When his wife is terminally injured in a boating accident, he has to reconnect with his estranged daughters: the older Alex (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller.) Both girls have troubled pasts.

The Descendants was penned by Nat Faxon, Jim Rash and director Alexander Payne. The former two also wrote and directed the great coming-of-age drama The Way, Way Back. Faxon and Rash produced another entertaining and enjoyable film. Although it had the potential to be morose and whiny, it was light-hearted, but poignant throughout. A lot of that has to do with the film's tone. The film is full of great jokes while also addressing serious topics. Family is the most important theme whether that is Matt's relationship with his estranged children or his relationship with his cousins who have all squandered their inheritance and are desperate for them to sell their land to make them a tidy profit. 

But despite these pressures, he is never a self-suffering protagonist. He always tries to do the right thing and, while, he has every right to be mad at the driver of the boat who injured his wife, he always chooses to take the high road. He is also an honest character - constantly despairing about how to connect with his children. Even when Alex reveals that Matt's wife was having an affair with an estate agent called Brian (Matthew Lilliard), explaining some of the resentment between the two, Matt just wants to give Brian a chance to say goodbye.

George Clooney was great as Matt King. He made the attorney sympathetic without making him pathetic. In fact, it's his hope and optimism that makes him such an endearing character to watch. He also had a great chemistry with Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller who played his daughters. It was lovely watching these three characters become a family again. Woodley and Miller were great as well. Granted both of them start as spoiled brats, but they both develop into strong, young women especially Alex. Woodley gave the character a wonderful vulnerability and she held her own against Clooney. She would have been only twenty in this role and she's since gone onto have a great career.

Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne and Jim Rash won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for this film, and it's easy to see why. Within the Descendants, they crafted an enjoyable, funny, and, at times, tragic story, that is never self-pitying or morose.