Film Review | 'The Descendants'

The Descendants
George Clooney, Shailene Woodley
Directed by Alexander Payne
2012
A-, 4.5 Stars

The Descendants is the story of Matt King, a man who is the descendant (hence the title) of a Hawaiian princess and her husband from the mainland. King is entrusted with the family's property and is in charge of dictating what the property becomes when the time is right. King's wife, though, has been in a terrible boating accident and knocked into a coma. As Elizabeth King slowly lets go of life, King (with the help of his two daughters and a rude teenage boy called Sid) discovers that she had an affair with another man whilst being married to King. He embarks on a journey to rebuild his relationship with his family and find the man who stole his wife from him.
This film was seriously a tremendous film. I know that a film with Academy Award nominations is expected to be phenomenal, but this film truly blew me off my feet. The characterization of Clooney's character, as well as Woodley's, triumph high above the rest of the characters, but the character that I find most enticing and most interesting is that of Elizabeth King, played by Patricia Hastie. As the story unfolds, the intimate exposition of Elizabeth King unfolds, and the audience is exposed to her biggest secret that she kept hidden from everyone, save her eldest daughter (Woodley) and her two best friends. Watching Clooney's character interact with the unconscious Elizabeth King is so moving; the audience is able to discern Matt King's true emotions being forced out of his heart and into the open air, and we watch as he desperately hopes to repair his relationship with his family and wife, but struggles with the confusion of his wife's betrayal.
The plot was rather character-centric. It actually is a very simple plot: man goes on hunt to find man who sleps with wife. There. That's it. No cracks to fill in between. The thing that makes the plot so intense, though, is the presence of characters such as Brian Speer, Speer's wife, Elizabeth King's father and mother, and even the youngest King daughter, Scotty. The characters add so much depth and complication to the way the plot is executed, and the view cannot help but be vacuumed into the silent moments of raw sadness and, at some times, euphoria.
On a rather personal note, there is a scene in the film in which (spoiler alert) King and his daughters bring an urn full of Elizabeth King's ashes to the ocean and scatter the dust in the water. When I was nine-years-old, I was swept into the world of cremation via the death of my grandmother Marilyn (Sue). It was very hard for me to endure fictional characters do something that I, myself, had assisted with nearly six years in the past. That did, however, make it all the more easier to connect with the moment and the emotion of the characters. Being in that situation, it isn't exactly expected of you to cry your eyes out, but to accept the loss of a loved one and oblige to that person's wishes to be set free into the 'Great Unknown.'
Overall, the film was a delightful, powerful, and emotional trip across the Hawaiian Islands that are the King family. The Descendants definitely has my vote for Best Picture.