It must be a slow year for movies because somebody nominated The Descendants for Best Picture. It is not a particularly bad movie, but neither is it a particularly good movie. Overall, The Descendants just lacks the sparkle or grit that typically makes a movie eligible for Best Picture. I have absolutely no desire to see it again, except perhaps for the beautiful scenery: it is set in Hawaii.
George Clooney plays Matt King, a lawyer whose marriage has deteriorated because he is not an emotionally present member of his family. He goes to work and leaves the task of raising his daughters to his wife, Elizabeth. When Elizabeth is in a boating accident that leaves her in a coma, King suddenly finds himself dealing with the consequences of his absenteeism while trying to decide how to tell his family and friends that Elizabeth will not recover from her coma and juggling his cousins, all of whom have strong opinions on to whom the family’s Hawaiian land should be sold.
From there, the movie could have been a rehash of an overdone premise, or it could have been a really emotional, hard-hitting look at a typical U.S. family and the consequences of a tragically disrupted status quo. Unfortunately, it was mostly a rehash. Scottie, King’s 10-year-old daughter, has some serious behavioral problems that completely disappear halfway through the movie without any real parenting from King. Alex, the 17-year-old daughter, reportedly has a drug problem, but except for inadvertently teaching Scottie to curse—and thereby earning the film an R rating—she never causes King any significant problems. In fact, Alex and her father bond by traipsing around Hawaii trying to catch a glimpse of the man with whom Elizabeth has been having an affair.
The movie has some charming and humorous moments, but I spent most of the movie waiting for it to be over. After an hour, I used my phone to find out how long the movie was, so I would know when I could leave. Watching The Descendants seemed like a waste of time because nothing significant ever happens. The characters themselves just sit around waiting for Elizabeth to die, and I wished she would just hurry up and die. Her affair and her condition—completely comatose throughout the entire movie—make Elizabeth an extremely unsympathetic character. I kept thinking that the family was better off without her and should move on, and I do not think that was the reaction The Descendants was trying to evoke. Consequently, I do not think it deserves to win Best Picture.