With the holiday season in full peak, Hollywood is trying to get a piece of the pie for their desert. One strong contender is Martin Sheen’s The Way, and now George Clooney’s latest film, and perhaps his best, The Descendents, which opened in theaters on November 23, might have some of Hollywood’s top movies of the year fighting for first place when award time rolls around.

The creator of SIDEWAYS, Alexander Payne, directs Clooney in the Hawaiian filmed comedy/drama about a land baron protecting his land from being developed for commercial purposes.

Matt King (Clooney) has a lot weighing on his shoulders between his land management and coping with the decision of taking his loving wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) off life support after she was injured in a boating accident.

Elizabeth has raised their two daughters and now that she is comatose, Matt must raise them. The girls, however, have minds of their own. Teenager Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) who has a most impressive dialogue, and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller).

The film is shot on location in beautiful Hawaii, a state I would love to revisit. And although the Island might be the co-star, the movie is actually centered around Matt being a single parent and still dealing with his controlling share of real estate that was handed down to him by one of Hawaii’s first white descendents many years ago.

With all this drama on Matt’s mind, he soon learns his wife was having an affair and does some research that eventually takes him to the man’s doorstep. That man being a real estate agent close to him by the name of Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard). He eventually confesses to his wife Julie (Judy Greer), after he is confronted by her, and she goes to Elizabeth’s dying bedside and has a few syllables for her.

Some of the comedy is supplied by Alexandra’s spaced out boyfriend, Sid, played by Nick Krause (“How to Eat Fried Worms” 2006) who eventually gets on the nerves of the father-in-law Scott Thorson Robert Forster) who grants Sid a black eye. Scott never was that personable with his son-in-law believing he could have been a better husband.

Enter Beau Bridges as Hugh, Matt’s cousin, who wants to coax Matt to sell his scenic land which top dollar can be had.  Are you kidding this hustler? Hawaii IS top dollar for all they have.  And The Descendents will earn some serious bucks at the box office this holiday weekend. The acting is fine a frog hair and Clooney’s handsome looks keeps the scrips coming. Just look at The Ides of March and The Perfect Storm.

We get so caught up in these characters lives that it seemed so rare for this reviewer at least, that is was here and gone in a perfect time. I wasn’t constantly checking my watch or getting restless. I also liked the idea that although Beau Bridges character would be the bad man if had be, but Matthew Lillard was not at all a bad guy. He just wanted to get some strange. The only problem, she was married. But, in the end, we all come to agreement with the conclusion of The Descendents.

The comedy portion of this film has Matt sneaking up behind bushes, jumping from one side to the other side while trying to stay invisible as he is pursuing his wife’s secret lover. And then, again, there is Sid’s goofiness, the girls’ potty mouth and the one gesture, compliments of Scottie.

Fox Searchlight has once again come up with a wonderful film. This is one based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings and directed by Alexander Payne, written by him, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. It runs 115 minutes, and is Rated R for language and some sexual references.

By Hustlin Bob Higgins 4 1/2 stars