i like motion pictures

how do you care for an estranged wife in a coma?
how do you stop your daughter from hating her mum when you hate her too?
how do you face a father-in-law who believes you messed up and his cheating daughter is "faithful and devoted"?
how do you hide the truth when you meet the family of your wife's lover?
how do you handle a widely-favoured business deal but which helps your wife's secret lover make millions?

these are the kinds of questions Matt King, or George Clooney, has to answer in The Descendants, proof of the critically-acclaimed film's complexities.

with "family drama" written all over, what hit me most about this film is its exposition of the complexities of life. it seeks to debunk cliches often exploited in movies.

quoting my favourite Roger Ebert again: "This is so much more complex than most movie plots, where good and evil are neatly compartmented and can be sorted out at the end."

but im not wholly won over.

the screenplay's impressive, but bear in mind it's adapted. in truth, it's the kind of stuff American tv writers churn out regularly.

i must also concede the film is at times unbearable, and not in a hard-hitting way, but just in a corny way.