History Film / TheDescendants

* EasilyForgiven: One could argue Elizabeth gets off pretty easy given that she was evidently willing to cast her husband and daughters aside and tried to seduce a married man away from ''his'' family. Although her actions and motivations are framed with an appropriately reproachful attitude, her death causes the film to treat them as in the past, and ultimately the movie ends with Matt bidding her a fond farewell.

* CastingGag: A running joke during the early parts of the book is Matt expressing bewilderment at Scottie's choice of t-shirts. One of which simply features the words "Mrs Clooney".

* AcademyAward: It won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 84th Academy Awards. Much like Alexander Payne's [[{{Sideways}} last film]].

* AlohaHawaii: Played with; although there's lots of beautiful scenery (it's still Hawaii), it mainly focuses on the people who actually live there, for whom life isn't always like what the tourists would expect.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Cousin Hugh is a friendly and nice guy (he's played by Beau Bridges). He also makes it clear that if Matt [[spoiler: doesn't sell the land, he will come after him legally]]. Matt even {{Lampshades}} this in his narration:

* BlatantLies: Several times people comment that they're sure that Elizabeth will pull through and Matt agrees [[spoiler: even though he's been told she's being taken off life support and will die soon.]]

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: Played with; Matt angrily shouts down one of his wife's friends when she tries to justify the affair with the "she was lonely" excuse, but refuses to let Alex tarnish Scottie's image of her mother (even if it would the honest thing) and is surprising while it's suggested she did have sympathetic motives to some degree it's also made clear that her actions were still selfish and damaging to her family.

* ParentsAsPeople: Matt is a workaholic who is struggling to connect with his children. Elizabeth was a self-absorbed adrenaline junkie who cheated on her husband and her refusal to admit the affair caused problems with her oldest daughter. Elizabeth's father, meanwhile, is a gruff, jerkish man, and they have to keep the truth about his daughter's infidelity to her husband a secret from him because he's so old-fashioned he wouldn't be able to deal with it.

* ShoutOut: At the end the family watches ''Film/MarchOfThePenguins'' together. Bonus: the scene that they are watching features Creator/MorganFreeman narrating about how Antarctica was once a tropical paradise, and slowly moved south and became covered in ice as the tectonic plates shifted. Matt and his kids live in the tropical paradise of {{Hawaii}}. Nothing lasts forever...

* TheUnfairSex: {{Defied|Trope}} after we learn that Elizabeth cheated on Matt.
-->'''Kai''': Your marriage...she was lonely.
-->'''Matt''': So what, you're gonna go spouting cliches about women now? Nothing's ever a woman's fault.
* YourCheatingHeart: Elizabeth was cheating on her husband when she had her accident with a man who himself was married. She seems to have had no remorse for what she was doing (although, Matt admits their marrige was on the rocks) and wanted the man to leave his wife, but he didn't. It's implied Brian has a much better relationship with his wife than Matt and Elizabeth did.

''The Descendants'' is a 2011 dramedy film, directed by AlexanderPayne and based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The film stars Creator/GeorgeClooney as a Hawaii based lawyer. When his wife is in a boating accident and is left in a coma, he has to care for his daughters on his own, despite knowing little about them, while fighting a breakdown when he's told his wife's living will demands she be taken off life support. When one of his daughters reveals that his wife was cheating on him, he begins a journey with his daughters (and one of his daughter's 'friends') to find the man, partially to confront him and partially to tell him he should come say goodbye before she dies.

* DumbassHasAPoint: Sid tells Matt not to use retarded in a derogatory fashion. He claims to have a mentally-challenged brother (although he was lying) but he's still right.

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: Played with; Matt angrily shouts down one of his wife's friends when she tries to justify the affair with the "she was lonely" excuse, and while it's suggested she did have sympathetic motives to some degree it's also made clear that her actions were still selfish and damaging to her family.

* ParentsAsPeople: Matt is a workaholic who is struggling to connect with his children. Elizabeth was a self-absorbed adrenaline junkie who cheated on her husband and her refusal to admit the affair caused problems with her oldest daughter.

* SoundtrackDissonance: All. The. Time

* YourCheatingHeart: Elizabeth was cheating on her husband when she had her accident with a man who himself was married. She seems to have no remorse on what she's doing to either spouses though Matt points out the marrige was basically almost dead, and wants the man to leave his wife while he is reluctant to do so. It's implied he has a much better relationship with his wife than Matt and Elizabeth did.

* HiddenDepths: Alex comes off as a typical bratty, rebellious daughter for the first half-hour, with little care to her mother's plight. Then we learn it's because she caught her mother sleeping with another man and was disgusted at how her mother threw the family away while denying the whole thing.

The film is Alexander Payne's first film since 2004's ''{{Sideways}}'' and has been extremely well received by critics, with particular praise given to Clooney's performance and the well written screenplay (partly written by [[Series/{{Community}} Jim Rash]], [[HiddenDepths who knew?]]).

* HotDad

* AssholeVictim: Elizabeth was cheating on her husband when she had her accident with a man who himself was married. She seems to have no remorse on what she's doing to either spouses though Matt points out the marrige was basically almost dead, and wants the man to leave his wife while he is reluctant to do so. It's implied he has a much better relationship with his wife than Matt and Elizabeth did.

* YourCheatingHeart

* HeyItsThatGuy: Kai is played by Deputy Kimball from Reno 911
** Brian is [[ScoobyDoo Shaggy]]

* SoundtrackDissonance: All. The. Time.
* SpankTheCutie: Matt does this to his teenaged daughter Alex after she disrespects her mother, much to Alex's astonishment.

''The Descendants'' is a 2011 dramedy film, directed by AlexanderPayne and based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The film stars GeorgeClooney as a Hawaii based lawyer. When his wife is in a boating accident and is left in a coma, he has to care for his daughters on his own, despite knowing little about them, while fighting a breakdown when he's told his wife's living will demands she be taken off life support. When one of his daughters reveals that his wife was cheating on him, he begins a journey with his daughters (and one of his daughter's 'friends') to find the man, partially to confront him and partially to tell him he should come say goodbye before she dies.

* ShoutOut: At the end the family watches ''March Of The Penguins'' together. Bonus: the scene that they are watching features MorganFreeman narrating about how Antarctica was once a tropical paradise, and slowly moved south and became covered in ice as the tectonic plates shifted. Matt and his kids live in the tropical paradise of {{Hawaii}}. Nothing lasts forever...

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Cousin Hugh is a friendly and nice guy (he's played by Beau Bridges for god's sake). He also makes it clear that if Matt [[spoiler: doesn't sell the land, he will come after him legally]]. Matt even {{Lampshades}} this in his narration:

* AssholeVictim: Elizabeth was cheating on her husband when she had her accident with a man who himself was married. She seems to have no remorse on what she's doing to either spouses though Matt points out the marrige was basically almost dead, and wants the man to leave his wife while he is reluctant to do so. It's implied he has a much better relationship with his wife then Matt and Elizabeth did.

* AssholeVictim Elizabeth was cheating on her husband when she had her accident with a man who himself was married. She seems to have no remorse on what she's doing to either spouses though Matt points out the marrige was basically almost dead, and wants the man to leave his wife while he is reluctant to do so. It's implied he has a much better relationship with his wife then Matt and Elizabeth did.

* AdaptationDisplacement: The movie was one of the most critically acclaimed movie of 2011. The book didn't even have it's own Wikipedia page until after the movie came out.

* AssholeVictim Elizabeth was cheating on her husband when she had her accident with a man who himself was married. She seems to have no remorse on what she's doing to either spouses though Matt points out the marrige was basically almost dead, and wants the man to leave his wife while he is reluctant to do so. it's implied he has a much better relationship with his wife then Matt and Elizabeth did.

* DysfunctionJunction: Matt is a workaholic who can't connect with his kids; Elizabeth, before her accident, cheated on Matt, was a self-absorbed adrenaline junkie (and was implied to have a lot of other problems as well); Alex drinks, used to do drugs and [[ReallyGetsAround really get around]], and has issues believing her parents, or at least her mother, don't care about her; and Scottie is involved in (at least mild) cyberbullying, has a friend who throws parties involving porn videos, and shows pictures of her comatose mother to her class.