Here's that rare human comedy that earns its laughs and tears. Orchestrated without a false note by director and co-writer Alexander Payne, The Descendants gives George Clooney the role of his career to date as a Hawaiian landowner coping with a cheating wife (now in a coma) and two daughters he can't fathom. It brims with surprises you don't see coming.

Related
• Peter Travers' Original Review: 'The Descendants'
• Cover Story Excerpt: George Clooney