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The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011)

His wife in a coma, husband discovers she had an affair - he goes to confront the lover.
 Descendants is a quieter film, trying to amplify the subtleties of the luxury problems of an upper-class family in Hawaii with native forefathers. Although it has a nice story, at first I was confused by the fact that George Clooney was cast. Although he does well what he does it took me more than an hour to forget his larger-than-life persona with all the clichés that go with it. Shaylene Woodley was fantastic, had no idea she was already famous. Darn.
Once I got around that, though, I could really enjoy the film. Going through the second time, I am interested in how the different stories interweave.



Matt & Wife
 Matt & Daughters
 Matt & Family
00:02
 Wife is in a coma



00:03

Scottie has problems at school and Matt needs to apologize

00:07



Will he/and the family sell the piece of ground? For a billion dollars? (Yes)
00:11
 Wife's condition is deteriorating. Shall he switch her off?



00:14
 Kai and Wife are with Elizabeth, pretending that she will be ok. Will he tell them?



00:15

Spends time with Scottie. Will he tell her? Troy comes over and in their fight Scottie runs away.
Matt DECIDES to go and get her sister Alexandra.

00:19

The get to Alex, but she is drunk in the park. They take her home.

00:21

Confrontation with Alex and Matt.

00:23

Matt is upset and tells Alex about her mom.

00:27
 Alex tells him, that she was cheating on him.



00:29
 Upset, Matt RUNS to Mark&Kai's house in his slippers.



00:31
 Matt confronts them with the his wife's cuckoldery. He gets the man's name.



00:35

He meets Sid, Alex' 'boyfriend'.

00:36
 Grandfather's not too pleased about anything.
He scolds on all of them.

00:41

Sid and Matt don't exactly hit it off, but Matt's confused.

00:43
 He sees the lover's (Brian Speer) house.



00:44
 Matt pretends to be a house buyer and calls Speer's office.



00:45
 Scolds at his wife.



00:48
 Family fight in front of Elizabeth.
 Dito

00:50

Scottie has no real friends, brings a schoolmate to “proof” condition of mother.

00:52
 He tells all the friends that Elizabeth will die.



00:55
 He decides to go to Kauai, to confront Speer in person.
 Alex will go with him → so will Scottie.
 (The land they're selling is in Kauai... tadaa)
00:56



Bumps into cousin at the Kauai airport. We hear that the family is divided about selling. They go and see the land.
1:01
 Speer is not in the expected hotel, but somewhere close-by in a cottage. They go wandering, looking for him on the beach...
 ...while Matt shares stories about Elizabeth with his kids.

1:04

Scottie seems to have loads of problems Matt never realized.

1:06

Matt and Sid sort of bond.


1:09
 Matt runs into Speer while beach-jogging, follows him to his house. Speer has a wife and kids.



1:11
 On the beach he purposely starts a conversation with the wife.

The owner of Speer's cottage is in Matt's family.
1:15
 Ta-Daa! His wife's lover might be an important business associate.

Speer is actually part of of the business deal for selling the land locally. Speer is VERY ambitious.
1:18
 Let's go and knock on Speer's door.
 Alex come/not come?

1:20
 He meets with Speer! Who is not amused.



1:22
 Matt and Brian get to talk. He tells him that he can say goodbye to her at the house.




1:28

They break the news to Scottie, finally with some help. Matt can't do it alone.

1:29

Grandfather comes to say goodbye.
 Presses Matt about the sale...
1:33



Start of the family meeting. Matt's NOT signing.
1:38
 Waiting for Elizabeth to die
 Waiting

1:40
 Julie shows up, 'forgiving' elizabeth



1:43
 Matt says goodbye.
Everybody says goodbye.

1:46

Ashes into the sea.

1:48

Watch TV together.



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