The Descendants

I saw The Descendants this past weekend. Overall, I thought it was a rather beautiful film, crafted well. When it first started, I thought that I was going to hate it. George Clooney, the star, just talked over the film for the first ten minutes. Voice overs used when they could just use a regular scene are one of my pet peeves and they did it over the first few scenes. That was my main issue with the film. It was filmed in Hawaii, in places that I have actually been so that was fun to see. They had landscape shots that were beautiful and really showed the scenery and setting well. The acting was superb, especially by the daughters, Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller. Many have said that Woodley's portrayal of Clooney's seventeen year old sarcastic daughter will earn her an Oscar nomination, along with Clooney. I agree completely that they both deserve the nominations. This adaptation of a novel was very successful. The writers did a superb job. They created a character that was a friend of the older daughter and he
just follows them around, supporting them all the way. At first, you think, "Why is he there", and then he turns out to be a really sweet character.
Overall Grade: A-