Allow me to retort:
"no chemistry between boyfriend and girlfriend"
This is not a love story about them. The lack of chemistry as you call it made a point you obviously missed. The older daughter was alienated from her mother and the mostly absent father. She was making a poor choice in her boyfriend, whose very unsuitability was emblematic of her alienation. you missed it.
- It makes no difference whether this is a love story about them or science fiction story about an asteroid about to destroy the earth. Characters and their actions in every story or film have to be believable so that we can preserve what is called "suspension of disbelief". When film fails in that respect, as this one did many times, than we are not really immersed in the story, we are annoyed by it. Zero chemistry between the two young actors, while at the same time she claims to love him is laughably unbelievable, and leaves an impression of a plot device, just to make the film more interesting.
"(no empathy) for not selling property" - speak for yourself.
Actually, I too felt the same way. If someone is dying, and the whole situation is complicated by an alcoholic daughter, idiot kid and few other problems on the side such as wife's-been-cheating deal, than property part of the story is way low on the priority scale for any viewer, except those who are not distrubed by dying spouses and ruined children. Add to that the fact that we see nothing of substance that would make him change his mind and the whole property deal is - meh... couldn't care less.
"All other characters are stereotype." I don't know what you are talking about. Please provide a basis for this generalized and unsupported condemnation.
Stereotypes are characters who bring nothing new, who are one-dimensional and un-original. All characters in this film were stereotypical, Clooney's included. How many times have you seen stupid boyfriends, or addicted daughters, or badly behaving kids, or cheating wives? The only not-so-stereotypical part was showing brain-dead woman's face for ever and ever and ever... NOt to mention that even stereotypical characters can be presented in an interesting way, but this film fails there too. The older daugther makes a swtich from an irresponsible adict to quite a mature human being, with no character trasnformation that is visible or believable. Same for Clooney, and the same goes for everyone else. The boyfriend is an idiot, and he stays the idiot, except when it suits the director, he less of an idiot. (Great acting by him though!)
"adaptation from a novel needs much more improvement" For all the importance of screenwriting, it is only one element in films. This film I thought had more than sufficient context and character development. You apparently thought it failed to meet your standards.
First of all, not every novel or story is easily made into a film. Actually, it is quite difficult to do it right, if nothing else, than at least because of completely different medium used to tell the story (page of words vs. big screen with moving pictures and sound). But above all, this film fails in illustrating why those characters have changed, if they have, and what their motivations are, and how they went through those transformations. I can list cazillion other films, much less pretentious than this one, where a character change is much more believable and satisfying then in "The Descendants".
Watch for instance another film with Clooney "One Fine Day" and Michelle Pfeiffer change from an arrogant perfectionist to a little more approachable woman when she is humbled by her own mistake of loosing his... (don't want to spoil it). And we believe her change because some of that humbleness was already present, under the surface. Showing growth in characters takes a lot more careful planning and writing than just showing a young teen drunk in one scene, and perfectly sober and rational in another.
Any specific suggestions, or do you just want to make a purely subjective argument and leave it at that?
While I know the above was not meant for me, I think that my reply gives plenty of specifics.
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