The movie opens with a moment which led to a crisis. You see a woman waterskiing. It's just an instance, full of color and vitality, and then the scene shifts to a hospital room, where this woman is in a coma as a result of an accident on the water that day. Her husband is in the room. He tells her when she recovers, things will be different. He says he will be a better husband.
George Clooney plays Matt King, the husband, in this film. He is also a father. With his wife hospitalized, he is in sole charge of his ten-year-old daughter, Scottie. When the doctor tells him that his wife is not going to recover and the machine will need to be turned off in a matter of days, Matthew retrieves his seventeen-year-old daughter, Alexandra, from boarding school, and they begin trying to resolve things.
The film reminded me of Up in the Air. It seemed like the next progression. In Up in the Air, his character, Ryan Bingham, comes to the conclusion that he does want to feel emotionally connected in life. In this film, Matt King had married; he had loved his wife, had children, and then buried himself in his work. He has to make peace at what happened in his marriage and reconnect with his family.
Clooney is different in this movie. He is quiet, older. I had never seen him as a father before. Has he ever played a father before? There were moments when he reminded me of Cary Grant, those instances when he was on a mission and running in a mad dash. He is smart and determined. He is believable. I felt he earned his moments. I understood his process.
Many of the actors in this film were unfamiliar to me. I would like to see Shailene Woodley (Alexandra King) and Nick Krause (Sid) in other things. They were interesting and original, and I always wanted to see what they were going to do next. And an old familiar, Beau Bridges, impressed me with the intensity he put his role as Uncle Hugh. He demonstrated that one could make a big impression with a limited amount of time.
The film was shot in Hawaii, an important place to me, so that gives it an advantage in my heart. We walked into the theater, where they played Hawaiian music, and I was already transported. This was my favorite movie that I have seen from last year. I could easily see it again.
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