The Descendants is a 2011 American drama film directed by Alexander Payne. The screenplay by Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash is based on the novel of the same name by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The film revolves around a father and his two daughters come together to deal head on with calamities. While Matt's wife lies comatose in a hospital, he and his girls try to find the man she was seeing before the accident.