Saturday, January 07, 2012

The Descendants

I'm not sure that I should have seen this movie. It was well-acted with an intelligent, adult story. But, for just about all of the story, the wife was dying and dying inexorably and quietly. That is not something I am particularly interested in reliving.Eventually, it reached the point where they 'pulled the plug'. 

The movie raised questions of marriage and parenting. I think many senior citizens who are still rational tend to relate the experiences of the protagonists in a serious movie such as this to their own experiences as a parent and a spouse.  In the real world, you really never learn whether your parenting has passed the test unless it has been a true disaster, but you do know whether your marriage was the right thing for you and your spouse.

In this movie the husband did not learn of his wife's infidelity until she had become a vegetable. He was cuckolded basically because the marriage had lost its spark.One of the basic questions the movie raises is how the husband should react to his wife's lover. The other is whether the husband will eventually become a real parent. Both questions are answered in a positive way. How realistic this is is for you to see.

A side bar to the movie was its setting - Hawaii. It is truly beautiful.

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