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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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