Descendants is a film that attempts to operate on several layers at once. While it may be said to be allegorical in one sense (taking place on what is popularly presumed to be an island "paradise," where falls are experienced and redemptions are sought), the film by Alexander Payne may also be said to be a simple story about a father and husband who learns (on his wife's deathbed) that he is actually a cuckold. What follows is a two-hour experiment in tolerance, as both the viewer and the characters in the narrative become aware of exactly where their threshold of pain stands. That threshold is then pushed to its limits, as Payne drives home one twist of the screw after another. In a way, the film is about the weakness of man -- Matt King's inability to love his wife, to be there for his children; Brian Speer's inability...
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