Set in beautiful Hawaii, The Decendants starring George Clooney as Matt King, a wealthy lawyer and father of two teenage girls suddenly finds himself at one of life’s crossroads following his wife’s serious boating accident off Waikiki which puts her in hospital.

Having spent more time at work than with his two daughters he finds that he has to deal with one precocious 10 year-old Scottie played by Amara Miller and a rebellious 17 year-old Alexandra played by Shailene Woodley, who reveals that his wife has been having an affair. As if that wasn’t hard enough, he is in the middle of being the sole trustee of a family wanting to sell off a large amount of highly valuable land on the islands that has been handed down to his family over many generations and the wrangling that entails, hence the title of the film.

Working with Hawaii Tourism Europe here in the UK, I was fortunate enough to be invited to go to the screening on Tuesday evening in Twentieth Century Fox’s screening room here in London.

Despite the serious undertones of the movie there are some wonderful lighter moments played by Alexandra’s boyfriend Sid when he first meets her grandfather and who we later realise does have a more serious side. There are also some amusing scenes as Matt (Clooney) and Alexandra (Woodley) confront his wife’s lover, having tracked him down to one of the islands. There is also a nice little twist at the end of the movie! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Trailer courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures

The cast also includes Beau Bridges who plays one of Clooney’s many cousins and the film is produced and directed by Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning film SIDEWAYS. The film is in cinemas from January 27th here in the UK and has a running time of 111 minutes.

Not to be missed