By George, we are all descendants!

Who in a relationship with George Clooney  or someone who looks like him  would cheat on the man?

In the movie The Descendants, Matt King (Clooney) finds out from his own daughter that his wife Liz (played by Patricia Hastie), now lying in a coma after a boat accident, had cheated on him. Maybe that’s why it’s a movie. (And it gave Clooney an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.)

Seriously, The Descendants is a mirror of reality even as it pokes on the membranes we wrap ourselves with when we want to insulate ourselves from reality.

Before he finds out that she had an affair, Matt King looks at his wife Liz in her hospital bed and promises her everything just so she would wake up. He realizes her value to him after months, even years, of taking her for granted. If only, if only… He is truly sorry for his past omissions and wants to make it up to her.

And then he finds out that she wasn’t true to him, that she was even planning to divorce him. This helpless woman, with a tube down her throat and urine bags by her side, who literally can’t lift a finger, once had the temerity to think of leaving him?

Does it change the way he feels for her? Will we change the way we feel about a person we love when we discover something about him/her that hurts us? Betrayal takes many forms  it doesn’t have to be an affair.

Matt’s daughter Alexandra is the one who catches her mother having an affair. She confronts her mother, has a big fight with her, but keeps her discovery from her father. She is revolted by her mother. But on the day she finds out about her mother’s true condition, she sinks to the bottom of a dirty swimming pool and in its depths, she cries her heart out. She grieves for her mother, the mother she knew and loved, even for the imperfect mother she loves still.

The minute he finds out about his wife’s affair, Matt races to find out who the man is. He literally races to the house of Liz’s best friend to find out why, how, how come, where, when the affair began. We find out that Liz’s best friend won’t spill the beans on her because she (Liz) isn’t capable of defending herself at this time. She stands by her friend even when she knows she won’t benefit from their friendship anymore. The best friend’s husband, on the other hand, understands Matt’s need for a name, a face, an answer and he gives Matt a name  Brian Speer, a real estate agent.

THE DISCOVERY: Matt spies on the man who has betrayed him.

Perhaps because he knows he has two daughters, and that they will have no one left to parent them if he does something violent because of his rage, Matt isn’t homicidal. But just like women who become expert detectives when tracking down their philandering partners, Matt tracks down Brian.

In the process, we get to understand why the movie is entitled The Descendants. Matt and his cousins are the descendants of an illustrious family and heirs to a legacy  a fortune as well as tradition. Matt’s family is heir to a vast tract of land in Kaua’i and Matt is the trustee. He gets to decide whether to sell or not, and to whom. He finds out Brian Speer will benefit if the sale pushes through.

He meets Brian’s amiable wife Judy and he is able to confront Brian about the affair. He asks Brian if he and Liz had ever done it in their conjugal bedroom. Though he is virtually slain by Brian’s admissions, Matt doesn’t lose it. He gets even, though, when he says goodnight to Brian’s wife even if he doesn’t say a thing. He simply opens his mouth.

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The Kings get a surprise visitor in the hospital. Brian’s wife Judy comes with a bouquet of white flowers. Matt allows her to go near Liz, and she tells Liz she forgives her even if she had tried to break up her family for her. She came to visit Liz, she told Matt, because Brian told her, as he told Matt, that he never loved Liz and never planned on leaving his family. So Judy found it in her heart to forgive Liz.

When he was alone in the hospital room with his comatose wife, Matt whispers to her: “You were my love, my friend, my pain and my joy. My joy.” Despite everything Liz was his joy more than his pain. He forgives her.

Someone once said, “Don’t let your history be your destiny.” By forgiving his wife of her grievous sin against him in the past, he was releasing himself from the sin’s power to bring him more pain. He was free from the bondage of a painful history.

Does Liz eventually die? Or does she recover? And will all of them realize that their deathbed forgiveness of her was more out of mercy than genuine love?

I won’t spoil it for those who have not seen the movie yet.

But this much I can say. The worst of times brought out the best in Matt King. He became the better parent in the family. Back home, under the quilt that kept Liz warm while in the hospital, Matt and his family became whole again.

As for the vast tract of land that the King descendants were to make a mint on, just let me say that in the end, Matt made sure that there were no trespassers. No intruders. In his life, in his kingdom.

For all of us who are descendants  to a fortune, a legacy, a kingdom of values, a great love  in the end, that which is kept whole emerges far more valuable.

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