The Descendants

While The Descendants is certainly mellower in tone compared to Alexander Payne’s earlier films, he makes up for the lack of acerbic wit with heartfelt emotion

Matt King (George Clooney) is a lawyer in Hawaii and the trustee to real estate gold. Matt is also the husband of a wife who has becomes comatose after a boating accident and now, has to take care of his two daughters — the pre-teen Scottie (Amara Miller) and teenaged Alex (Shailene Woodley). Both the girls are rebellious for reasons quite diverse. While Scottie is turning into a foul-mouthed, angry, young girl in reaction to her mother’s predicament, Alex, on the other hand, has stumbled on to her mother’s infidelity, and refuses to forgive her for that. She even goes ahead and tells her father of the affair in a fit of anger and Matt, now, decides to confront his wife’s illicit lover. Curiously, this decision only brings Matt closer to his daughters and together they realize the importance of being a family. While The Descendants is certainly mellower compared to Payne’s earlier films, which seemed to revel in their quirky but at the same acerbic tone, it is a certainly poignant tale showcasing Matt’s evolution from a clueless and incompetent parent into a father who ultimately finds love and respect from his daughters. A perfect Father’s Day film for dads and their daughters.

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