The Descendants Reviews
May 3, 2012
Will keep you soaked in its melancholy until the very end...
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
April 30, 2012
Sort of like a shotgun marriage between Jimmy Buffett and Harry Chapin.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
April 16, 2012
There's some pretty tricky material for Payne and crew to navigate, but anchored by a terrific cast it's a journey of hurt and healing that lingers.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
April 6, 2012
overrated, but not a bad movie
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
March 15, 2012
"The Descendants" goes on too long, but that's its only flaw. And frankly, I can see why Payne and his editor decided to go with this print instead of making some awfully tough decisions.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
March 10, 2012
George Clooney gives a wonderful lead performance in his new film The Descendants but Clooney has always been more than just a handsome face, he's a proper movie star and in that old Hollywood tradition, he's also an everyman, one of us.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
March 8, 2012
No doubt the awards hype around the film will get people into cinemas but it doesn't warrant the attention considering Payne's previous work and Clooney has put in much better performances.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
February 23, 2012
Payne manages to give the film a lightness that makes it uplifting or at the least fulfilling, rather than depressing.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
February 17, 2012
full review at Movies for the Masses
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
February 2, 2012
This film is one of the best films of 2011 and should compete for top awards when the Academy Awards roll around.
Full Review
| Original Score: A
February 2, 2012
The sharp wit and commitment to damaged men remain, but with his newfound appreciation of what goes unsaid, The Descendants sees Payne finally becoming the filmmaker many have claimed he was all along.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
January 31, 2012
The film plays to Payne's strengths - not just the emotional complexity and the constantly shifting kaleidoscope of moods, but his skill at eliciting in-depth performances from his cast.
January 30, 2012
It's rare for a director to strike the right chord with every film but Alexander Payne has managed it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
January 29, 2012
The Descendants becomes a kind of exhilarating, island-hopping road movie with Matt as much in search of himself as of his wife's mysterious lover. Along the way he's learning what it means to be a man, to understand himself and others.
January 29, 2012
The film's tone is quaint but the story dramatic and the characters maintain the ability to shock and surprise.
January 28, 2012
Uma narrativa artificial e frgil que soa mais como a viso de um roteirista alienado de Hollywood sobre a vida de uma pessoa comum (multimilionria, claro) do que como algo com o qual indivduos reais poderiam se identificar de alguma maneira.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
January 27, 2012
Few films have dealt with the concept of parental death as movingly, poetically and lovingly as this, delivering a strikingly powerful narrative that is as profound as it is honest.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
January 27, 2012
...a solid, grown-up film that reminds us that there's real heroism in simply living day to day.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
January 27, 2012
A non-preachy exploration of the depth, width and complexity of life, love and relationships, and this great gift we call humanity.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
January 27, 2012
The mix of slapstick and pathos is exquisitely judged, but the viewer needs to be patient for the film to work its magic. Adjust to its rhythm, though, and you'll be rewarded by a wry and perceptive view of the human comedy.