Learning from The Descendants

Last Saturday afternoon, Chief and I, together with my mom watched “The Descendants.” And we all liked the movie. Nothing fantastic in terms of cinematography, but the storyline would touch anyone’s heart. And the Hawiian music which featured artists like Gabby Pahinui, Ray Kane and Keola Beamer playing slack key guitar. Wikipedia defines slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii. The style originated from the Mexican cowboys.

George Clooney has clearly transcended himself from being the young doctor in ER and even once, putting on the cape as Batman.

Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, the story revolves around the challenges of Matt King, played by George Clooney. He has to take care of his two daughters, Scottie and Alex and the family estate which has been passed on to him by his descendants. His wife, Elizabeth, suffers an accident and won’t recover from a coma. Matt is sole trustee of the estate includes 25,000 acres of pristine land on the island of Kaua'i. Reminds me of our own property in Catandunganon, Camarines Norte.

The story gets complicated as one of the buyers is connected to Brian Speer (played by Matthew Lillard). Matt learns from Alex that his wife and Brian had a relationship.

Won’t reveal the ending as Matt and his daughters tracked down Speer through island of Kaua'i.

The movie serves to remind us on the challenges of parenthood. How we should balance work and parenting responsibilities. How we should spend more time playing and talking to our kids who are growing up fast and right before our eyes. Matt called himself as a “back-up parent” which we hope we won’t call ourselves in the future.