The Descendants is a 2011 American comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne. The film stars George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard and Robert Forster, and was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures in the United States on November 18, 2011 after being screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

 

Alexander Payne's seriocomic The Descendants, an adaptation of the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, stars George Clooney as Matt King, a middle-age Hawaiian who runs a trust responsible for millions of dollars worth of untouched real estate that has been passed down to him and various cousins. He is preparing to sell the area, and make millions for everyone in the trust, when his wife Elizabeth suffers severe head trauma during a boat race.

 

Matt and Elizabeth have two daughters, 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller) and 17-year-old Alex (Shailene Woodley). Matt is not very close to his daughters and refers to himself as the "back-up parent". With Elizabeth in a coma at Queen's Hospital, he is forced to confront Scottie's inappropriate behavior with other children and Alex's destructive ways.

 

Matt learns that Elizabeth will never awaken from her coma, which means that under the terms of her living will she must be disconnected shortly from life support. He tells Alex, but not Scottie, that Elizabeth will not recover and must be allowed to die. To Matt's dismay, Alex initially refuses to see her mother. She then reveals to her father that Elizabeth was having an affair at the time of the accident, which caused a major rift between the mother and daughter. With his two daughters in tow, along with his oldest daughter's doofus boyfriend, Matt sets off to confront the man who made him a cuckold.

 

The film began its on-location shoot in Hawaii on March 15, 2010. Most of the film was shot in Honolulu and around Hanalei Bay. Underwater photographer Don King filmed a scene where Alex King sinks below the surface of a pool and screams out her grief underwater. The house used as Matt King's house had a flaw in that it lacked the banyan tree described in the book; the filmmakers solved the issue by transplanting a banyan. For the scene where the King family drives up to a ridge to look over their land, the film used a 3,000-acre private cattle ranch on the south shore of Kauai, Kipu Ranch. Kaui Hart Hemmings, the author of the novel on which the movie was based, had a cameo as Matt King's secretary.

 

The Descendants screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. The Descendants received positive reviews upon release. On Rotten Tomatoes it scored an approval rating of 89%. The website's consensus is: "Funny, moving, and beautifully acted, The Descendants captures the unpredictable messiness of life with eloquence and uncommon grace."

 

The Descendants won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as two Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture – Drama and Best Actor – Drama for Clooney.