Movie/TV Show Being Reviewed:
The Descendants

Reviewer:
Heather Ratti and Jane Myers

Genre:
Drama

Movies/TV Shows:
Movie

Suggested Age Range:
Parental Guidance

Age Range Explained:
Suggested for adults, but may be applicable for teens as well

Subject Headings:
Family dynamics, Grief & loss, Relationships

Review:
In The Descendants, George Clooney plays a man in the midst of a crisis. As he struggles with the decision of whether or not to sell 25,000 acres of his family’s land in Kaua’i, his wife is injured in a boating accident and slips into a coma. Because of the accident, he is forced into the role of sole caretaker of his two daughters, ages 10 and 17. This role is unfamiliar to the main character, a busy lawyer who sees himself as the back-up parent. During a conversation about his wife’s condition, his daughter reveals that her mother was cheating on her husband. The rest of the film follows the journey of accepting his wife’s indiscretion and eventually making the decision to take her off life support.

This film could be useful in courses in developmental or couple and family counseling as it evokes themes clients commonly face: family transitions, marital affairs, parenting, midlife transitions, death, and finding meaning in life. Clients experiencing grief and loss who view this film may be helped to begin healing through discussions of how the main characters handled their decisions and emotional reactions to different types of losses. Clients experiencing marital conflict or men facing single parenting may find that the movie stimulates thoughts and emotional reactions about those issues. The movie may elicit strong emotional reactions, hence selecting clients to view it should be done with caution. Clients who have dealt with parental affairs or decisions concerning life support or death of a partner during times of marital conflict may be re-traumatized by viewing this movie.