The movie “The Descendents” portrays a middle-aged lawyer, played by George Clooney, who struggled with unexpected occurrences in his life. I really like George Clooney’s acting in this movie. Instead of playing a charming and glamorous role, he played a regular middle-aged man, pretty much beaten down by unexpected events in his life.  He is in the midst of coping with his comatose wife from a boating accident, dealing with his two rebellious daughters, and making a tough decision on the family's 25,000 acres of pristine land on the island of Kaua’i in Hawaii. On top of that, he found out that, during the time of the accident, his wife had an affair with a man, a real estate agent who would make a lot of money from commissions if the family’s land were sold to and developed by his brother-in-law.

In the movie, George Clooney muses: “A family feels exactly like an archipelago, separate but part of a whole and always drifting slowly apart.” Yes, it seems that the different members of a family tend to drift apart as their lives go on, but they are still connected through their family bonds and shared past. Sometime a family can be brought together by a tragedy or a life-changing event, as it happened in this movie. Blood is indeed thicker than water. This movie did not win my heart by its plot, suspense, and climax, but it touched me by its strong family ties, heritage preservation, and forgiveness.  

There are several George Clooney’s running scenes in the movie. He was running like a madman or a fugitive, without a graceful gait and posture at all - the comic scenes in the movie, and I can’t help laughing at his running scenes.