Movie Experience and Review: The Descendants

Last Friday night I went to see The Descendants with George Clooney. Well, I didn't go to the movies with George Clooney, he was in the movie, The Descendants; but, how cool would it be to go with George Clooney? He would probably be a fun person to hang out with. Anyway...

The movie started at 6:40 and so about 10 minutes after 6:00, I left home and instead of going my regular route, I headed towards the interstate to the Parkway. I was apparently in la la land because once on the ramp, I realized I didn't need to go that way and prepared to exit to go my regular route. In the process, I was almost run over by a work van of some sort who was merging into my lane in the same spot I was driving. I had to slam on the brakes to prevent from falling of the interstate. Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe driving?

I finally made it to the movie theater in one piece and pulled into the parking lot. There was a lady standing in the middle of the row I was driving down talking on her cell phone and she had to move out of the way, then she proceeded to stand in front of the parking place I decided to take and she had to move again. When I got out of the car, she was again standing in the middle of the row. It was freezing cold out and I mean, really, what idiot just stands in the middle of a parking lot row talking on the phone? Have the common sense to at least stand to the side so you don't get run over. Not everyone is going to be as polite as me!

I made my way inside the theater and got in line to purchase a ticket. There were two old women in front of me and a third rushed passed me to join them. As we were walking in line, one of the first two slung her scarf back over her shoulder and proceeded to hit me in the face. I let out a little scream as I was not expecting to be mauled at the movie theater, but the old woman didn't seem to notice, or perhaps she didn't care that she had just struck an innocent bystander with her orange weapon. A man in line behind me noticed it and he and I had a chuckle about it. He told his wife what happened and she joined in our laughter as well.

I finally managed to get a ticket once the old women were out of my way and headed towards the inside. Unfortunately, they only had one line open to get in and needless to say, there was a bottleneck of people trying to make their way inside. One of the managers, thankfully, had enough sense to open a second line to take tickets and it wasn't long after that I was safely inside. I headed straight to the concession stand and found a spot that had no line and promptly ordered a medium popcorn.

After getting my bag of popcorn, I made my way to the theater and had to walk through a sea of people who were posing for a photo with some characters from Star Wars. Look, I like Star Wars as much as the next person, maybe more so in some cases, but on this particular evening, these characters were basically just a nuisance, an obstacle to my getting to my seat. In case you are wondering why the Star Wars folks were there, well, in an effort to make George Lucas even richer, Star Wars Episode One was released in 3D over the weekend. I just don't get the whole fascination with 3D. It does absolutely nothing for me and I am not going to pay money to go see a movie in 3D that I've already seen in the theater and have at home on DVD or Blu Ray. Seriously, everything is coming out in 3D now. Even Titanic! It's ridiculous. I think I'll pass and use the extra $3 for popcorn. Not to mention the fact that it makes me kind of nauseous.

Moving on...

I finally reached the theater and when I walked in, I was overcome with the fact that I was the only person under the age of 60 in the room. I am not even kidding when I say that 95% of the people in the room had grey or white hair. Who knew older people were so keen to watch a movie about a women dying and how it effects her family? I found a set on the next to the last row and got all settled in. I was afraid I would be late, but the previews had not yet started. As is always the case, just when you think the theater can't get much fuller, more and more people trickled in, including a couple who looked to be in their 80s who came in as the movie was starting and sat behind me. The man coughed on and off through the movie and it was a deep cough. I thought he might lose a lung a time or two. Thankfully, he walked out on his own accord once the movie credits rolled.

As for the movie itself... absolute perfection! Let's face it, pretty much everything that George Clooney does is perfection these days. The man chooses really great scripts. The film is set in Hawaii and is about a family dealing with what will soon be the loss of the wife/mother, who was in a boating accident and is in a coma. It basically shows how the family copes with it and there is a twist or two along the way. As deep as the subject matter is, there were many laughs for me along the way. I laughed loudly a lot! I also laughed loudly a few times when no one else did; not sure what that says about me. I saw a lot of my own family in this family and I guess that's why I was able to find humor in places where others didn't. I also cried at the end so obviously this movie will take you on an emotional roller coaster so be prepared.

There is a lot of foul language in this movie so be prepared for that as well. Despite that, I would highly recommend this movie to anyone looking for something to watch this weekend. I'm not sure how much longer it will be out. I think it was re-released since it's up for so many Academy awards; so it may not be at the theater much longer. So, if you miss it on the big screen definitely check it out via Netflix, Redbox, or whatever else it is you kids use these days. FYI, my parents also saw this movie last Friday and my dad really liked it too; not sure about my mom.