Movie Review: The Descendants

I saw a sneak preview of The Descendants a couple of days ago. I had also recently read the book on which it is based, as I am wont to do. Surprisingly, the movie very closely follows the book, although of course it can't fit in everything from a 200+ page book. I think the edits made for the big screen were smart ones, though, and, in fact, I can't think of anything they left out that should have been there. I feel like you got a good handle of the characters in both and there was really only one very small change they made to the plot towards the end that was something that didn't make much sense to me when it happened in the book so I'm actually glad that it was changed. Sorry for the vagueness but I don't want to spoil it.

That being said, I didn't enjoy the movie that much. It's getting Oscar buzz and, judging by the audience reaction when I saw it, many were enamored by the film. George Clooney is definitely an amazing actor, as if we didn't realize this before. And Shailene Woodley did pretty well, especially since all I've ever seen her do is star in that insipid ABC Family program, The Secret Life of the American Teenager. But, I just found the whole thing pretty boring. Maybe it was because I knew exactly what was coming since I'd read the book. Maybe it was the lack of comedy - I thought the film would be more of a dramedy since the book had some entertaining moments but the movie seemed too serious. Or, maybe it was just the plot.

The general plot of the film involves George Clooney as Matt, whose wife is dying in a coma thanks to a boating accident and who is forced to suddenly up his child-rearing involvement to his two daughters. To make things worse, he finds out his wife was having an affair pre-accident. And, finally, he is a descendant of a major landowner in Hawaii and has a huge land deal looming over his head while his wife is dying. I guess you would say it's about a middle-aged man finally waking up to the world around him and growing up. And that, I guess, is boring. My suggestion is to wait to rent it or skip it entirely.