Best Picture nominees, "The Descendents"

Some years ago, there was always a front row seat during the Academy Awards that had Jack Nicholson in it. This would mean he'd appear on camera frequently during the broadcast, and it also usually meant he'd be the butt of a few jokes from the host as well. Nowadays, the "Jack seat" is the "George seat", because every year, George Clooney is in that front row somewhere. What helps his cause is that every year, he seems to be in the mix with nominations for acting and/or directing and/or writing and/or producing. This year is no exception as he has two nominations. One is for his screenplay (with Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon) for "The Ides of March". The other is for his lead performance in the film being discussed here, "The Descendants".

"The Descendants" is based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings (who has a cameo in the film as Clooney's character's secretary), and is written and directed by Alexander Payne (others also are credited with Payne for the screenplay). Entirely filmed and set in Hawaii, the movie was set to open in limited released shortly before Christmas, but due to early word-of-mouth and great success at a few film festivals, the film wound up opening a month ahead of schedule and remains a moneymaker in semi-limited release today.

The film opens with a beautiful blonde being towed on water skis behind a boat. The scene lasts about ten seconds, and it's all we see of her in an active form. We get introduced to Matt King (Clooney), a lawyer and the sole trustee of 25,000 acres of land in Kauai. New laws make this land ownership void in 7 years so he is preparing the sale of the land with members of his family. Matt is leaning towards selling to Don Howitzer, who resides in Hawaii. This would mean the money comes from Hawaii and stays in Hawaii. However, something has created a major distraction and source of conflict. His wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), is comatose as a result of a boating accident, which occurred in storyline (but unseen by us) eventually after the opening shot we saw of his wife, the blonde, being towed by a boat.

Matt, who calls himself the "back-up parent", tries his best to keep youngest daughter Scottie (Amara Miller) in check, as she's reached the age where she's discovered rebellion. With the rest of his family starting to gather due to the closing of the deal, they now find themselves also gathering to support Matt and offer positive thoughts as to his wife coming out of her coma. Unfortunately, in a later visit to the hospital, the doctor tells Matt that Elizabeth will not recover. She can remain on life support but would not survive without the ventilator, and has too severe brain damage to heal otherwise.

Matt brings Scottie to the Big Island to retrieve the eldest daughter, Alex (Shailene Woodley). They arrive at night to surprise her, but she's not in her room. Matt, Scottie and the dorm head find her outside drunk with a friend. Matt tells her she needs to come home, and winds up carrying her (after the flight back, of course) from the car and into her bedroom.

The next morning after breakfast, Alex is flippant towards Matt. She jumps into the pool and Matt eventually gets through to her and tells her that Elizabeth is not going to recover. Alex breaks down and does an impressive scene of bawling while underwater. (Clooney has remarked that her ability to do that scene is one of the most remarkable sights he's ever seen an actor perform.) Alex goes inside and seems to be mad at her mom more than anything, and realizes upon Matt's objections that he has no idea why. Alex informs him that the reason she's been upset with her mom for so long was that over the last Christmas holiday, she caught her mom cheating on Matt. He gets what little information Alex knows from her and then puts on a pair of boating shoes and, in what seems to be the most famous scene from the film, goes running to the house of their friends, Kai and Mark. (Clooney has stated that he wanted to make the run look as awkward as possible, and he does so to a comical level.) It turns out they know all about the affair. Kai doesn't want to go into detail but eventually does, telling Matt she loved the man and had planned on filing for divorce. After leaving still without the man's name, Mark follows him and lets him know that his name is Brian Speer.

Upon returning home, Matt finds Alex has a friend over: Sid (Nick Krause). Sid is a very laid-back dude, too much so for Matt's initial taste. Alex says Sid needs to be around for her to be more civil. The foursome then undergo a journey around a couple of islands as Matt looks for answers, not to mention looks for Brian Speer, all the while still juggling the impending sale of the land he and his ancestors have owned for centuries. In the process, characters evolve and grow as the situation around them changes and the eventual results--some inevitable, some unexpected--come to fruition.

"The Descendants" has received five Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Clooney), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. The film recently won a top prize at the Writer's Guild Awards, and Clooney has won a number of awards for his performance, including the Critic's Choice and Golden Globe Awards. Recent momentum has given the film a good shot at snagging at least one Oscar, seemingly for the screenplay, and the Best Actor race looks to be a proverbial photo finish with Clooney and "The Artist"'s Jean Dujardin taking turns winning against each other in the rest of the events leading into Sunday's Oscars. The film's budget was about $20M and it has made more than triple that just in North America alone, despite mostly in somewhat-limited release. I really enjoyed the movie as well and think this has a definite shot at pulling off one or two surprises on Sunday night.

"The Descendants" is currently still in theaters nationwide.