The Descendants and The Kids Are All Right

At first glance, you wouldn’t expect The Descendants and The Kids Are All Right to have anything in common. A workaholic lawyer who has to come to terms of being a parent to his children while his estranged wife lies dying and a lesbian married couple who must to come terms when their children via sperm donor, start interacting and hanging out with their sperm donor, who turns out to be a hippie organic farmer. Despite what these films present both films share many of the same themes like the loss of a marriage, infidelity, letting go someone you love very much.
The affair in The Descendants, although offscreen, is one of the pivotal points of the film. George Clooney’s Matt King is now driven to find out the truth. He feels beyond hurt and to find this out from his own daughter while his wife lies dying in a comatose state, just really drives him to find the truth and to confront the man with whom his wife was cheating on him. This affair furthers proves at how Matt King is distant from his wife and kids. His wife was having an affair right under his nose and he is completely oblivious of this matter. He feels so much anger and hatred towards his wife, yet at the end, he accepts that he was not a good husband but that he does not blame her nor does he hate her. That he always loved her.
Now the affair in The Kids Are All Right is portrayed on film, and it plays an important role in the film’s finale. The affair is odd to begin with-between Jules, a married lesbian, and Paul, her sperm donor and the father of her children. Just because she is having sex with a man does not change her sexuality or her love for Nic, but Nic has been so distant with her and puts her work first then family, that she is driving Jules away. When Nic finds out about the affair and confronts Jules, Jules tells her that she wanted to be appreciated, that Nic has been pushing her away to a point that she wants to accept her and encourage her which is how Paul comes in.
Both films also have the loss of a love one, although one is less tragic than the other. The Descendants it is the death of the wife, the mother of these children from a terrible boating accident. Although there is a scene after Matt King finds out about his wife’s affair and basically just goes off on this verbal rant at her, the hurt he feels and the anger, by the end of the film, he breaks down and says to her that he loved her, and that he always loved her. It’s heartbreaking that despite the problems they had, he never really the chance to really prove to her that he still loved her.
The Kids Are All Right, Jodi is heading off to college. The baby bird is finally leaving the nest. Nic and Jules knew this is going to happen, but to them she is there little girl. That is something every parent and college kid can relate to (well a majority). Parents don’t see a 22 year old but that 2 year old who would wear their clothes backwards and run around, streaking. The time has come for Jodi to start this new journey, this passage into adulthood and to find her place. It is the loss of your child to adulthood. For a parent, that hurts more than anything.
The Kids Are All Right and The Descendants may, at first glance, seem as distant as ever, but if watched carefully, the two films deal with some of the same issues although each have their own way of dealing with the issue at hand. Both films deal with the loss of another, one film more tragic than the other. Both deal with an affair and each film has its own different approach to the matter. The main theme or the main draw of both films is family. It is about a family in the middle of this crisis.