“Complicated, Confusing, and Funny”

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

The Descendants is the latest movie starring George Clooney, but more importantly it is also the latest movie written and directed by Alexander Payne.

Now, you might not be that familiar with his name, but surely you are familiar with at least some of his other films. Payne also directed the 1996 Citizen Ruth, the 1999 Election, the 2002 About Schmidt, and the 2004 Sideways.

Clooney plays Matt King, a lawyer on Hawaii who hasn’t been on a surfboard in 15 years, and one day he finds himself faced with a number of big problems.

He is the trustee for the ownership of 25,000 acres of the last huge portion of virgin beachfront land in Hawaii that is owned by him and his seven cousins, they are trying to decide whether to sell it for development, and if they don’t sell it, the trust dissolves in seven years.

Matt’s wife, Liz, is in a coma from a boating accident, and the doctors don’t know if she will ever recover.

Matt is ready to be a real husband and a real father to his two daughters, but 17-year-old Alexandra and 10-year-old Scottie are becoming more problems than he is sure he can handle.

And on top of all that, Alexandra tells Matt that she saw Liz out with another man, and Matt discovers that Liz was in love with this man and was going to ask Matt for a divorce.

So, when we hear Matt say, “I know I can make things right,” we are not so sure that he can, and therein lies this excellent and very funny movie.

Matt believes that there is something wrong with his daughters, but he starts to bond with Alexandra in ways that he never could before when they begin a mission together to find out who the man is that Liz was having an affair with.  Matt says that he just wants to see him, but we have to believe that Matt might want to do more than just that.

And when Matt discovers who the man is and what he does, he also discovers that there might also be a connection that could affect Matt’s decision about selling that huge portion of land that he and his cousins own.

The Descendants is complicated, confusing, funny, and also very excellent.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”