Alexander Payne + Clooney + Hawaii = The Descendants

I found this kind of a snore, tbh. However I really loved seeing Hawaii shown in a 'hey people live here' way. Honestly I enjoyed it more once I ignored the story and just watched it as a travel documentary, lol

Not bad--except for a couple of scenes near the end (Judy Greer's bedside scene), not as mawkish as I expected/feared.

However I really loved seeing Hawaii shown in a 'hey people live here' way.

I liked that too. Shailene Woodley and Robert Forster were good. And not to get sidetracked, but another demurral on Kramer vs. Kramer, which is really good, and might indeed be the best American film of 1979--I'd take it over Apocalypse Now and (easily) Being There, and maybe over Breaking Away too.

I saw this on DVD some years ago and I see I didn't bother to comment in here at the time.

My lasting, if vague, impression is that it might have been faithful to some archetypal Hawaiian story that rang true as a bell to the residents of Hawaii and it possibly held a mirror up to the islands such as has rarely been captured on film, but for a non-Hawaiian such as myself I recall it as insufficiently engaging or entertaining to allow me derive any real enjoyment from it. I recall all the main characters as coddled dullards with more money than sense, who stayed in character to the bitter end. Fascinating is not the word that springs to mind.

george clooney runs in shoes!

― occupy the A train (difficult listening hour)

If you think of this as a Flirting with Disaster-type road film mixed with a Terms of Endearment-type melodrama, the road film is better.

It has a good soundtrack.

i never did see this