Clooney at his brilliant best in ‘The Descendants'

Paradise isn't what you think it is in "The Descendants," director Alexander Payne's moving comedy drama about a family in Hawaii that's far from perfect.

Matt King (George Clooney) is "the backup parent," the one whom the children don't see as much, since he's working as a Honolulu lawyer.

Specifically, he's dealing with a major land deal involving a plot on Kauai settled by his ancestors more than a century earlier. Just as the deal is about to be finalized -- and Matt, as trustee, must choose which of two offers to accept -- he gets horrific news: His wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), has had an accident while on a power boat and is in a coma from which she may never recover.

Matt suddenly has to become the lead parent, handling his two daughters: 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller), who copes through her bizarre artwork; and 17-year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley, from "The Secret Life of the American Teenager"), a rebellious and perpetually angry girl just retrieved from prep school. Matt also has to deal with more unexpected news, and the reason behind Alexandra's anger: Elizabeth was having an affair with another man and was planning on divorcing Matt.

This review is from The Salt Lake Tribune. To continue reading, please visit sltrib.com.