The Descendants

Oh boy. I have so much to say about this movie.

I will be honest and say, I usually do NOT pick movies that deal with cancer/hospitals/dying as something I "want" to watch in a movie.

George Clooney stars as Matt King, an attorney from Hawaii who, despite the appearance of a man who seemingly lives carefree in paradise, isn’t immune to the messiness of life. He is in the process of selling 26,000 acres of pristine, untouched Hawaiian land which the family has owned for over a hundred years. All of Matt’s cousins are involved in negotiations with various buyers but Matt is the official trustee. Only his signature has the power to solidify any deal.

However, just before a deal is finalized, Matt’s wife, Elizabeth, suffers a traumatic brain injury in a boating accident and she becomes comatose. For the first time, Matt is forced to become the primary parental figure for his children, something he is certainly not used to or prepared for. Matt shares with his oldest daughter Alex that the doctors have told him Elizabeth is not going to wake up and that her death is very near. Upon hearing the news, Alex is devastated and confides to Matt that Elizabeth was cheating on him. Matt suddenly understands Alex and Elizabeth’s troubled relationship.

I bawled my eyes out towards the end. There was a scene where the Mother Elizabeth(the wife/mother in the coma) is just lying there,  in the hospital, and her father (the mean hard ass grandfather) comes in to say "good bye" and is stroking her hair and kisses her head and I seriously buried my face into Mister Wonderful and let him have it with my tears.

 It was all to real. Everything that scene depicted was so raw and real with emotion. It was like a scene from my own life in 1995 when my brother and I had to say good bye to my mother who died in our home, from slipping into a coma from the aggressiveness of the cancer that had overtaken her body. 

“Goodbye, my love, my friend, my pain, my joy. Goodbye.”

-Matt King (George Clooney), The Descendants

And watching George Clooney cry during the whole scene where he finally says good bye to his wife was like a punch in the stomach. 

This movie deserved every win it got at the Academy Awards. It’s the perfect story of how humans behave and how we’re so confusing but make so much sense at the same time.

They NEED to make more movies like this--movies that make the audiences FEEL real emotion!!

Mister Wonderful and I were both just kinda dumbfounded at how selfish people are/can be when it comes to "cheating" and destroying a family. It happens every day. Every freaking day people cheat in marriages. Lord knows I see it in my students. Hear their stories see their tears, their questions Why me, why did my mommy and daddy fall apart? It's awful. Not the fun part of being a teacher I signed up for. No sir-ri bob! 

Anyone else see this movie?