I love going to the movies. Sitting there in the dark with movie food (today it was popcorn) is good for my soul. Because my weekend was full of holiday/weekend things -- laundry, grocery shopping, wrapping gifts and dropping them off at The UPS Store, and completing my great cookie experiment (see below) -- I felt I deserved a little motion picture respite. So I dashed off to the local theater (I can, literally, make it from my front door to box office in less than 10 minutes) and saw The Descendants with George Clooney.The coming attractions make this appear to be a comedy, but it's not. George is an Every Man, a graying, overworked, under-involved husband/father who is suddenly confronted with a tragedy. He has to learn about how who he is and how he got where he is in the hardest possible way. This isn't the high-wattage star turn Clooney like his role in The Ides of March. He doesn't use charm to draw us in. His performance here is similar to the one in Michael Clayton in that he disappears into the role. And that his credibility is critical to our staying with this film. In that quiet way, he's wonderful.
So is Amara Miller, the actress who plays his younger daughter, Scottie. There's a spontaneity to her performance that captivated me.
