The Descendents (2011)

Matt King (George Clooney) has a wife who's in a coma due to a boating accident.  Their marriage wasn't doing so well before that happened.  King hopes she recovers so they can work on making things better.  The man struggles to deal with the couple's two daughters -- belligerant teenager Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and bratty ten-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller)  -- and their reactions to their mom's condition.  Unfortunately, King is hit with two bombshells.  He learns that his wife is dying, and he learns from his oldest daughter that his wife was having an affair.

King is also in the middle of a deal to sell some beautiful Hawaiian property that his family has owned for a couple of centuries. King, an attorney, is trustee over the property.  His cousins, including Hugh (Beau Bridges), are especially eager for King to sign off on the deal because all of them stand to make big money. 

I noticed the lovely Hawaiian scenery was in stark contrast to the family problems that King faced.  As his character states in the opening voiceover, just because people live in paradise doesn't mean they don't have troubles.  The film has been described as a coming age of story about a 50 year old man (and Clooney is the same age as the character), and that's correct.  King's character had been going through the motions before the tragedy happens that moves the story forward.  He's forced to stop ignoring the red flags that have been tearing his immediate family apart and take steps of correction.
Clooney recently won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for this performance; it was well deserved.  You can just about see his character's internal struggles even as he measures his words in reactions to all the situations crashing down around him.

Robert Forester has a small, but important role as King's gruff father-in-law, the type of man who never believed his son-in-law was good enough for his daughter.  I almost didn't recognize Matthew Lillard (who was in the movie Scream), as a real estate agent with a connection to the King family's plans to sell their land. 

The Ides of March (2011)

Stephen (Ryan Gosling) is a smart, ambitious staffer who works on the presidential campaign of Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney).  Morris is an Obama-like candidate; a campaign poster bearing his image is similar to ones the real life president used early on in his run for office.  Morris is good-looking, articulate, and says all the things the masses want to hear.  Paul (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is the head campaign runner, and he and the staff work hard to put Morris ahead in the polls and drum up support.

There's the usual dose of political strategies and deals done.  Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), the guy who's running the campaign of Morris' competition, convinces Stephen to meet with him.  This is a political no-no, but Stephen meets Tom in secret.  Tom claims that Morris has no chance.  He admires Stephen's work, and he wants him to come work for him.  Stephen turns it down, but somehow, the news of the clandestine meeting is leaked.  Ida (Marisa Tomei), a political reporter, wants Stephen to spill the details or else she's going to run with what she knows.  But this becomes the least of Stephen's problems when he learns of a scandal that could bring Morris' campaign crashing down.

I went to this movie with a friend who told me as the credits rolled, "I could never be in politics with all that going on."  I agreed.  As the daughter of a precinct captain, I was privy to how underhanded the political world could be, and still is.  My late father tried to get both my younger sister and I involved in that world, but the "one hand washes the other" mentality turned us off.  Clooney directed this film, co-wrote the screenplay, and helped produce it.  He did a good job of showing the fast paced, backroom dirty deals and compromises that politicians and their supporters do to win an office.  The Stephen character comes off as being a bit idealistic at first, but a cynical, dark side comes slowly comes out when he has to make some hard decisions throughout the story.  I also liked the Senator Thompson character, played by Jeffrey Wright, who operated purely from a "what's in it for me?" standpoint.

George Clooney appeared on series TV ("The Facts of Life" and "ER", both on NBC) before transitioning to the movies.  He has an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor 2005 (Syriana).  Ryan Gosling was in Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) and The Notebook (2004).  Phillip Seymour Hoffman was in Capote (2005).  Paul Giamatti appeared in Cinderella Man (2005).  Marisa Tomei is a Supporting Actress Oscar winner for My Cousin Vinny (1992).  Jeffrey Wright was in two James Bond movies -- Quantum of Solace (2008) and Casino Royale (2006).

Up In The Air (2009)

Ryan (George Clooney) is a corporate hatchet man, a guy whose job is travel around to companies and fire their long-time employees.  He has lived the majority of his life on planes and in hotels.  He's bored and restless during the few days out of the year that he's not traveling.  Ryan is not really connected to people -- not at work, not to his sisters, and certainly not to the people to whom he hands out pink slips. In walks Natalie (Anna Kendrick), a baby-faced, recent college grad.  She introduces a scheme by where people can be fired via video over computers.  Ryan's boss, Craig (Jason Bateman), thinks Natalie's idea is great, but Ryan is threatened by the possibility of not being able to travel.  After Ryan criticizes Natalie's idea, Craig tells Ryan to take her out on the road with him to get a better feel of the business.  Ryan is not crazy about doing so, but he takes Natalie along. 

Natalie challenges Ryan's attitudes about his isolated way of living.  He doesn't think of himself as a loner, but when he meets another traveling businessperson named Alex (Vera Farmiga), the encounter slowly moves him in another direction.

This is a very good film that explores being disconnected and trying to be connected.  The people who get fired find themselves suddenly cut off from the world of work.  Ryan is not close to his sisters.   Alex gives the impression that she takes life as free and breezy as Ryan does.  Natalie thinks she's grounded in a relationship.

George Clooney has appeared in several films, and he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the film Syriana (2005).  Anna Kendrick was in Twlight (2008).  Jason Bateman was the smarmy Derek on the sitcom "Silver Spoons" (1982-1987).

"The Facts Of Life" (1979-1988)

One of the most fondly remembered sitcoms of the 1980's followed four girls who attended a prestigious prep school. Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel) was the blond, haughty rich girl; Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey (Kim Fields) was the sunny, friendly one, and one of the few African-American students at Eastland; Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn) was the class clown; and Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon) was the tough girl from the Bronx.

When the series began, there were several girls to keep track of (including a young Molly Ringwald), but soon, the plots only focused on the four girls and Mrs. Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae), who was the housemother. Mrs. Garrett had been Mr. Drummond's housekeeper on "Different Strokes", of which this show was a spin-off. The girls experienced enough pre-teen and teenage mishaps to keep Mrs. Garrett busy with advice and Kleenex. Even when Mrs. Garrett left Eastland to open her own gourmet shop (later a malt shop), the girls followed her along. Mrs. Garrett's character was gone for good after 1986, when she remarried and moved away. Her chatty sister Beverly Ann (Cloris Leachman) became the girls new "housemother".

The show continued for nearly ten years and followed the girls as they graduated, went on the college, and began to deal with being adults. There was an episode where Natalie went all the way with her boyfriend Snake (Robert Romanus), although it was not shown on camera. Blair was missing from that episode because actress Lisa Whelchel, a conservative Christian, did not want to endorse pre-martial sex.

A reunion TV movie several years later found Natalie had found sucess as a writer, Tootie had become an actress (and had a daughter), and Blair was having some martial problems. Jo sent her daughter to represent her at the reunion (Nancy McKeon had declined appearing in the film).

Charlotte Rae had a long career on TV, including playing the wife of Officer Schauser on "Car 54, Where Are You?" (1961-1963). Kim Fields was a child actress who had appeared in a series of adorable Mrs. Butterworth's Syrup commercials during the 1970s. She was also a regular on the 1990's sitcom "Livin' Single". Cloris Leachman is an excellent actress who has appeared in many films including, The Last Picture Show. Lisa Whelchel married a pastor, and is now an author of Christian books. George Clooney ("ER", Ocean's Eleven) appeared on the show for one season as handyman George Burnett. Geri Jewell, an comedian who has cerebral palsy, appeared as Blair's cousin for a few seasons.