Share Charli's profile
Charli
Charli's stats
- Review count2
- Helpfulness votes0
- First reviewFebruary 16, 2009
- Last reviewDecember 4, 2011
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating4.5
Charli's Reviews
Overall rating
4
/
5
Other People's Neuroses Are Great, Aren't They?
PostedDecember 4, 2011
Charli
from New York NY
George Clooney (playing Matt King) and Shailene Woodley (playing King's eldest daughter, Alexandra) give excellent character performances, allowing the theater-goer to explore an everyday dysfunctional family's response to typically heart-rending events: A parent's infidelity and subsequent demise after a boating accident; the exposure of the offending interloper and the selfish scheme he led; the pain inflicted on both families resulting from that intrusion; and the further personal growth and healing of the family in response to all this, all while attempting to resolve pressing issues related to the family's beneficial trust. Clooney and Woodley give very convincing performances of the characters they portray: Matt King's passive, wooden and interpersonally inept persona, burdened by his work and unable to relate effectually to his beautiful but erratic wife, is forced by his wife's untimely accident and death to focus for the first time on resolving his family's problems. Likewise, Alexandra King's bitchiness and unruliness must give way to dealing with her personal guilt and shame at having hidden her mother's affair from her father and with her anger at her mother's shallowness and lack of real love for her. The weaknesses of the film stem, rather, from the pretexts and other vehicles employed in the plot, all of which are quite unnecessarily overstated: The pretense of a connection to the Hawaiian royal family, the ownership by the trust of 25,000 acres of pristine water front on Kawai, the gaggle of fat, selfish cousins, all of whom want the trust to be timely liquidated to their benefit. While these are all individually possible, taken together, their are very implausible as a proper background for the plot and they tend, so, to distract from the real story, here. All in all, The Descendants is a touching, charming tragicomedy set in Hawaii, with excellent portrayals by Clooney and Woodley, which makes for a very pleasant afternoon in the theater.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
Share:
0points
0of 0voted this as helpful.
Overall rating
5
/
5
Bollywood Comes of Age
PostedFebruary 16, 2009
Charli
from New York NY
Great film. Very well shot; fairly well acted. Excellent script. The interweaving of the action captures us in the progress of Jamal's pitiable life from "rags to Raja", as if his life were flashing before his eyes. The emotions conveyed are gripping and enthralling: We cringe when Jamal throws himself into a cesspool and, later, when Salim witnesses the maiming of an orphan; we exult when Jamal and Latika are saved by Salim from the hands of the gangster, Maman, and when Salim releases Latika from bondage. We are rapt when Jamal answers the final question and gets the girl in the end. Sealed with a kiss, this story of lifelong love and devotion shows that Bollywood has finally come of age. It will likely sweep the upcoming Oscars.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
Share:
0points
0of 0voted this as helpful.