‘The Descendants’ is a quiet film, set over a few days, which sees Matt (George Clooney), as patriarch to his own immediate family and trustee of the interests of extended family, confronted with a wife suddenly in a coma and a realisation that he is ill-equipped to guide his daughters through this nor any other crisis to come. Nothing about the movie is overdone – there is no overacting, no simplification, no unneeded exposition. The film opens with a voice over narration, which can sometimes throw up flare shots of poor story to come; in this case it is scene-setting and puts Matt’s crisis front and centre before letting the film unfurl of its own accord.