George Clooney is the descendants of the rich royal family of the Hawaii king. The cousins, represented by George, the trustee, were going to sell their huge land holding off Kawai coast to a golf/resort developer.

The movie started out in the hospital bed where Matt King (George Clooney) was beside the bed of his wife, Elizabeth, in coma after a speed boat accident. It was during his scolding his elder daughter when he found that her bad behavior rebelling against her mother was because his wife was having an affair with a real estate broker and was about to seek a divorce against him. He chased this man, Brian Speer, to Kawai and discovered that he was married with two children. He slipped the chance to meet this man and discovered that Elizabeth didn’t mean anything to him. Turns out this man will benefit enormously if he decided to sell his inherited trust to the local developer. He decided against it and ended up keeping the place, bestowing a revenge against the person who cheated with his wife. The movie ended with his sitting comfortably with his two daughters watching TV as if life will go on nicely after his wife’s death.

This movie is about betrayal, death, and family relationships: daughter/father, father-in-law, cousins – Hawaiian-style, and friendships (especially the one between husband and wife). There are light moments like his daughter’s (Alex) friend, Sid, and the foul language used by his younger daughter of 10 years old.

The lessons learned are 1) don’t do anything you’d be sorry in case you got yourself in a coma – alive and cannot talk back. 2) sometimes the best revenge could be just doing the right thing (not selling the estate), 3) children’s behaviors are often a reflection or reaction to parents’ bad behaviors.

The movies have wonderful Hawaiian scenery. George Clooney’s acting was good but not enough to win an Oscar. This is a good DVD movie to watch a home, not worth going to the movie theater for.