The Descendants: Press reviews

'Its flaws are impossible to distinguish from its pleasures.'

'So good, and in so many ways.'

'A marvellous follow-up to 2004's Sideways — well worth the wait.'

'thoroughly well made, the scenes fit together economically, pushed along by lilting Hawaiian music, and makes clever use of its glamorous setting by taking it for granted, as those who live there do.'

'The Descendants is fresh and very funny'

'Will go down in history'

'Don't be fooled by the balmy guitars: there's steel and acid under the painted palms.'

'a beautiful story from a master craftsman about a family overcoming grief.'

'A wryly compassionate vision of human fallibility that occasionally threatens to slip off-track, but is anchored by one of Clooney's strongest performances.'

'We go away feeling that every man is an island – and it's only a matter of time before each of us finds ourselves deserted.'

'There is something brilliant about this tiny deadpan collision of far-apart consciousnesses.'

'[a] sweet, sad film ... holds a promise of gentleness that is fulfilled, and a promise of complexity that isn't. '