***½ Fantastic Mr Fox (November 2009) – Rental

Animated. Directed by Wes Anderson, voice by George Clooney and Meryl Streep. A fox who had abandoned his thieving ways after the birth of his son plans one last heist.

She says: A thoroughly entertaining mix of the old-fashioned stop-motion animation and a kind of sly, modern humor. The extras make you realize that animators of this type have almost super-human patience.
He says: A good recommendation. I liked the style of this movie.

***½ The Descendants (November 2010) – Theatre

Directed by Alexander Payne, starring George Cloone. With his wife in a coma following a boating accident, Matt King is forced into reconsidering his relationship with her, his daughters, and his extended family.

She says: This movie is all aftermath. All the drama—the building of small family empire, the betrayal, the accident—happened before it begins, and we don’t even get flashbacks to it. It’s all learning about and dealing with what has happened. The script is tight, with bits of humour amidst a mostly tragic story, and the twists are unexpected. George Clooney is excellent, saying so much with those beautiful eyes.

He says: I liked that they didn’t go Hollywood with this. Where you’d expect a big fist fight, you got a tense argument. It made the whole story seem plausible, realistic. And I thought the actress who played the oldest daughter [Shailene Woodley] was very good.