George Clooney is a wealthy lawyer with a wife, 2 daughters and a very large house in Hawaii. But his wife is in a coma after a boating accident and he has discovered he has no idea who his daughters are or how to relate to them.
So clearly he has to learn to be the father he isn't and the older daughter has to find control and maturity she's lacking so they can both protect the struggling youngest from her own confusion.
It sounds predictable and clichéd but avoids both. The bonding forms around further significant events that are believable. There are moments that demand re-evaluating characters. They tend to confront audience prejudice as well as the characters but the moments are subtle so demand pathos more than ridicule. With characters response taking more time than a freeze frame, it is also possible to believe in the gradual redemption of broken characters.
George Clooney turns in a fine performance as you might expect but Shailene Woodley is the standout turning in a touching, vulnerable performance of a young woman suddenly forced to grow up.
The film as a whole is a fairly downbeat affair exposing more than its fair share of human frailty but the redemption of these faults, while not upbeat, prevents the film falling into a mire of depression.
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