Blog: New Movies
“Tis the season of new movie releases…usually before the first of the year, a ton of movies….GOOD films hit theatres in time for the Oscar nominations…so get your popcorn in between your holiday shopping and GO!!….
I try to see as many as possible in a few weeks…and leave the shopping to the end.
Number one on your list (of what I’ve seen so far) should be “The Descendants.”
George Clooney WILL and SHOULD get an Academy Award for his performance as Matt King, a real estate lawyer in Hawaii with two children, whose wife is in a coma from a recent boating accident.
That’s the bare facts:
The story goes much further…He has two kids… a 17 year old who is a rebel WITH a cause…and a punky ten year old.
His wife was having an affair BEFORE the accident…which he finds out later.
And he has this land…25 THOUSAND acres of coastal land in Hawaii….the helicopter shots are to die for…that he has to decide whether he wants to sell (like his cousins want him to do) OR keep it in the family…BIG DECISION!! A sale could bring him in millions…..he’s already a millionaire lawyer…but his cousins…are what’s the word: broke.
Matt is a humble man, despite his wealth, he eats his lunch out of a Tupperware dish….and doesn’t drive a jag or Mercedes.
But the land sale is on the back burner for now: there’s the issue of his wife and confronting her so called boyfriend, and getting to know his two daughters again. He works a lot.
Clooney is in every frame of the movie…we see every action and reaction…from total betrayal to a man trying to avoid a breakdown, to getting to learn how to care for two kids.
He’s magnificent….you see it in his face, you don’t need to hear the words.
And the kids are equally wonderful…Alexandra, the 17 year old (Shailene Woodley of the show, “The Secret Life of the American Teenager) and Scottie (Amara Miller), whom he really doesn’t know.
He call himself, “…The backup parent, the understudy….”
And then there’s Alexandra’s boyfriend, Sid, (Nick Krause) who reminds us of a young Sean Penn, in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” but is smarter than he looks and a wonderful addition to this brood.
Alexander Payne’s (he directed “Sideways” ) direction doesn’t let us down. There is not one second I looked at my watch.
GO!!! TAKE A BREAK FROM ALL THAT HOLIDAY CHEER!
Mr. Clooney has come a long way from E.R.
More movies to come.....
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