The Descendants
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: November 16, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
38
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 23, 2011
The Descendants would still be a splendid movie without him; with Clooney, it's one of 2011's very best. Read full review
100
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 22, 2011
It is particularly rewarding to see Clooney outside his comfort zone of self-composed cool in The Descendants, Alexander Payne's beautifully gentle, funny and moving film. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 17, 2011
A pitch-perfect movie that threads a microscopically tiny needle between high comedy and devastating drama. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 17, 2011
Rarely has a contemporary movie taken in so much life and revealed it with such depth of feeling. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 17, 2011
Clooney has never been better, subtler, more deeply rooted in a performance than he is in The Descendants. And he's funny, too. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNov 16, 2011
What happens is that we get vested in the lives of these characters. That's rare in a lot of movies. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanNov 16, 2011
Another beautifully chiseled piece of filmmaking - sharp, funny, generous, and moving. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 16, 2011
Clooney and Payne are coconspirators, too. They know that the story they are telling is too emotionally complicated to muck up with a lot of preening and artifice. They head right into the sad and crazymaking humor of the situation. This is a modest marvel of a movie. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 16, 2011
It's one of the year's most pleasurable American movies. Read full review
100
New York PostLou LumenickNov 16, 2011
Expertly mixing tears and laughs with the sort of alchemy not seen since "Terms of Endearment," this superbly written, directed, acted, and yes, Oscar-friendly movie perfectly captures the blackly comic insanity that can overtake a family forced to confront an impending death. Read full review
100
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 15, 2011
It's a precarious balance, but Payne blends wit and poignancy so artfully it feels like an exquisitely choreographed dance. Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 15, 2011
Payne's low-key approach only deepens the film's intimate power. Want a movie you can really connect with? The Descendants is damn near perfect. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 15, 2011
To call The Descendants perfect would be a kind of insult, a betrayal of its commitment to, and celebration of, human imperfection. Its flaws are impossible to distinguish from its pleasures. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Gail MacDonaldNov 13, 2011
Heartwarming, tragic and, at times, hilariously funny drama. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 20, 2011
After a five-year wait since "Sideways," Alexander Payne has made his best film yet with The Descendants. Ostensibly a study of loss and coping with a tragic situation, this wonderfully nuanced look at a father and two daughters dealing with the imminent death of his wife and their mother turns the miraculous trick of possibly being even funnier than it is moving. Read full review
100
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondSep 14, 2011
The Descendants is that rare bird, moving, enlightening, funny and unapologetically human. It's one of the year's best pictures, one to savor and think about. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn LevyNov 23, 2011
There are ample opportunities for the film to soak in pathos, righteousness, farce, or pictorialism, and Payne manages to nod at those pitfalls without falling into them. In a way, it's just like Matt King's world: enviably plush but filled with the real pain of real life. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnNov 14, 2011
The Descendants constantly hovers on the brink of a dark comedy. But it never takes the big plug. By treading carefully, Payne has created his warmest, most earnest work, if not his best. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 20, 2011
Nearly every detail sources directly back to Kaui Hart Hemmings' sensitively crafted novel, and yet, Payne's triumph is in striking the right tone -- and knowing what to leave unsaid. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 23, 2011
All of Payne's films have been driven by the anger and frustration of his protagonists, but The Descendants is the first one in which sadness lurks behind every frame. Read full review
88
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 23, 2011
At times humorous, at times poignant, but always absorbing. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanNov 22, 2011
At bottom, all Payne's films make us smile, often ruefully but hopefully. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 22, 2011
An Oscar-ready collaboration between a great director and a star at the peak of his powers, but at its heart is a message in a bottle reading: "Trapped in paradise. Please send help." Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 17, 2011
I can't think of another movie this year that made me laugh or weep harder for the whole lumpy business of being - the compromises and connections that get us through the day and somehow add up to entire lives. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 17, 2011
The two most moving scenes require extraordinary performances from supporting players...Forster is as deserving of a supporting actor nomination as anyone I have seen this year. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyOct 17, 2011
In a development that seemed to begin in earnest with "Sideways," a large part of The Descendents seems to operate on a non-narrative level. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinJan 23, 2012
A marvellous follow-up to 2004's "Sideways" - well worth the wait. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 16, 2011
Payne's observational humor and attention to detail yield something emotionally epic. Everything from beachfront jogs to hospital confessions reveals layers of humanity and absurdity. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith UhlichNov 15, 2011
This is an exquisite portrait of a family navigating the wreckage imparted to them by one of their own. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyNov 15, 2011
It makes The Descendants a tragedy infused with comedy and calls for a balancing act from filmmaker and star alike, a tightrope they navigate with nary a wobble. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 14, 2011
Payne is too acerbic - maybe too much of an asshole - to settle for easy humanism. But he's too smart a dramatist to settle for easy derision. Mockery and empathy seesaw, the balance precarious - and thrillingly so. It's the noblest kind of satire: cruel and yet, in the end, lacking the killing blow. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneNov 14, 2011
In short, The Descendants is the latest exhibit in Payne's careful dissection of the beached male, which runs from Matthew Broderick's character in "Election" to Jack Nicholson's in "About Schmidt" and Paul Giamatti's in "Sideways." Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirSep 14, 2011
The Descendants is gentle, witty, audience-friendly entertainment for grown-ups, with a great performance by one of our biggest screen stars. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreNov 21, 2011
The Descendants lets Payne show us the Other America and the Other Americans - little lives caught up in small but epic problems far away from the La La Land of Hollywood hype, sex and violence. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 17, 2011
The movie itself is a worthy thing, too, but it's not as good as Clooney is here, which is to say, it's not great. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayNov 16, 2011
The movie suffers from backstory-heavy voiceover narration in its first half, followed by an excess of quirky laugh lines down the stretch, just when it seems to be finding a stronger rhythm. There's a shameless crowd-pleasing element to The Descendants that keeps its harder truths about family relationships at bay. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesNov 23, 2011
The Descendants is beautifully shot (by Phedon Papamichael) and compellingly performed, especially by its young stars, and it has moments of startling tenderness. If only it didn't feel phony to its bones. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedNov 16, 2011
The Descendants is a soap opera with Hawaiian shirts. Read full review
55
MovielineStephanie ZacharekNov 16, 2011
The Descendants is an ultra-polished picture in which every emotion we're supposed to feel has been cued up well in advance. There's nothing surprising or affecting about it. Not even Clooney, who works wonders with the occasional piece of dialogue, can save it. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensNov 17, 2011
It's such a disappointment that The Descendants isn't a better movie than it is. In this soap opera disguised as a comedy, Payne, who was always a master at balancing sharp satire with an essential humanism, has traded his tart lemon center for a squishy marshmallow one. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesNov 16, 2011
Alexander Payne has won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay (Sideways), but you'd never guess that from this clumsily written drama: characters keep explaining things that their listeners would already know, and the first couple reels are so thick with expository voice-over that you may think you're listening to a museum tour on a set of headphones. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. HobermanNov 15, 2011
It left me cold. The pathos is as unearned as the protagonist's privilege. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissSep 14, 2011
I'm a notorious softie, and I found things to like about the film, most particularly Clooney's performance; but I remained untouched. Read full review
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