THE NOMINATIONS WERE ANNOUNCED TODAY:
Best Picture: “The Artist,” “The Descendants,” “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” “The Help,” “Hugo,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Moneyball,” “The Tree of Life,” “War Horse.”
Actor: Demian Bichir, “A Better Life”; George Clooney, “The Descendants”; Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”; Gary Oldman, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”; Brad Pitt, “Moneyball.”
Actress: Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs”; Viola Davis, “The Help”; Rooney Mara, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”; Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”; Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn.”
Supporting Actor: Kenneth Branagh, “My Week With Marilyn”; Jonah Hill, “Moneyball”; Nick Nolte, “Warrior”; Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”; Max von Sydow, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.”
Supporting Actress: Berenice Bejo, “The Artist”; Jessica Chastain, “The Help”; Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”; Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”; Octavia Spencer, “The Help.”
Directing: Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”; Alexander Payne, “The Descendants”; Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”; Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris”; Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life.”
Foreign Language Film: “Bullhead,” Belgium; “Footnote,” Israel; “In Darkness,” Poland; “Monsieur Lazhar,” Canada; “A Separation,” Iran.
Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, “The Descendants”; John Logan, “Hugo”; George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon, “The Ides of March”; Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin, “Moneyball”; Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”
Original Screenplay: Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”; Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig, “Bridesmaids”; J.C. Chandor, “Margin Call”; Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris”; Asghar Farhadi, “A Separation.”
Animated Feature Film: “A Cat in Paris”; “Chico & Rita”; “Kung Fu Panda 2”; “Puss in Boots”; “Rango.”
Art Direction: “The Artist,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” “Hugo,” “Midnight in Paris,” “War Horse.”
Cinematography: “The Artist,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Hugo,” “The Tree of Life,” “War Horse.”
Sound Mixing: “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Hugo,” “Moneyball,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” “War Horse.”
Sound Editing: “Drive,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Hugo,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” “War Horse.”
Original Score: “The Adventures of Tintin,” John Williams; “The Artist,” Ludovic Bource; “Hugo,” Howard Shore; “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” Alberto Iglesias; “War Horse,” John Williams.
Original Song: “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets,” Bret McKenzie; “Real in Rio” from “Rio,” Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown and Siedah Garrett.
Costume: “Anonymous,” “The Artist,” “Hugo,” “Jane Eyre,” “W.E.”
Documentary Feature: “Hell and Back Again,” “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front,” “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” “Pina,” “Undefeated.”
Documentary (short subject): “The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement,” “God Is the Bigger Elvis,” “Incident in New Baghdad,” “Saving Face,” “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom.”
Film Editing: “The Artist,” “The Descendants,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Hugo,” “Moneyball.”Makeup: “Albert Nobbs,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” “The Iron Lady.”
Animated Short Film: “Dimanche/Sunday,” “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” “La Luna,” “A Morning Stroll,” “Wild Life.”
Live Action Short Film: “Pentecost,” “Raju,” “The Shore,” “Time Freak,” “Tuba Atlantic.”Visual Effects: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” “Hugo,” “Real Steel,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.”
“The Descendants” is a wonderful movie, no doubt about it. But given the mix of golden globe and Oscar buzz I expected way more.
The storyline and the premise of the movie is perfect. In fact, the tagline caught my attention enormously: “trying to reconnect with daughters.” That is exactly the type of movie I like. Instantly, I could tell this was a movie about character development and human connection, usually the type of movies with the greatest potential.
Unfortunately, it was merely decent, however, not special. It felt like the movie built up a lot potential, but failed to release it at a certain point within movie. The entire movie, for me, felt too introductory in nature. Not necessarily the plot, because the plot does evolve, however the overall “feel” of the movie felt preliminary to a bigger and much more dramatic event which never happened.
It’s hard to explain my feelings towards the movie because the fault wasn’t necessarily technical or specific. But it did linger around and distracted my viewing somewhat. I felt like there was still more to discover in both Clooney’s character and the character of his daughters. Also, I think this element alone impacted on Clooney’s performance. His performance was good, definitely, but again, because I felt like there was more to be explored, naturally, I also felt like his performance could have been added to (but not necessarily improved).
Given the Oscar buzz of this movie, I have to compare it to other movies of a similar nature. And unfortunately, I didn’t feel like there was sufficient link between the characters…although the potential to reach that connection was established, it was not acted upon in my opinion. Unfortunately I have to say there have been better developed “re-establishing connection” movies.
All in all, this is an enjoyable movie, but it is missing some important elements which deteriorates the viewing experience to some extent.
Have a nice day!
Debbie