musingaloud | Movie-going: The Descendants - No Spoiler version (Reply)

We went to see the Descendants last night, and I enjoyed it so much. George Clooney is a favorite of mine, anyway, and it's my opinion that he very much deserved his Oscar nomination. He played his character with such quiet desperation and anguish. Really marvelous. The actress who played his older daughter also did a very fine job. The movies deals with a very sad situation compounded by an even sadder situation, and yet there are many laugh out loud moments in the movie that are so funny. And while they could have gone for the emotional heartstrings many times, instead they chose the more restrained moments, which I really applaud them for. I really loved the ending because it didn't go the much traveled and probably more common route of (no spoilers, so it's hard to speak in general terms here) tear-jerker (although I confess I did shed a tear or two), but left it very quiet and realistic, and full of unspoken hope. I think to combine comedy with drama is a tough thing to do and I thought they handled it with aplomb. I don't want to give spoilers, so that's as many details as I'll give for now. Highly recommend the movie.