George Clooney Wears Shorts

The Descendants was one of the films I was most excited to see this year. It has been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor and I am predicting it wins each award, although undeservedly in my opinion. The film is technically good, which is my least favorite type of good. It hits all the marks, huge actor; beautiful though misunderstood setting; family drama; tears of a clown etc etc. George Clooney is good enough in the lead role but I don't think it's an Oscar worthy performance, I just don't!
The director Alexander Payne is best known for directing Election a brilliant comedy about a high school presidential election, least known for penning the script for Jurassic Park III the only Jurassic Park installment not to be directed by Stephen Spielberg i.e the shitty one. He has made an aesthetically enjoyable film. The dreary representation of Hawaii is a refreshing change and I think the setting is what saves the otherwise boring film. It moves extremely slowly, with the most interesting parts being sped up so fast that we miss them and are dumped back into another ten minutes of Hawaiian music over long shots of the landscape in the rain.
I felt there were a lot of holes in the script, holes that usually would go unnoticed but because of the hype surrounding The Descendants I was watching very carefully. The character of Troy appears only once early on, and I felt we were waiting for him to reappear for the remainder of the film, although small it was something I didn't forget about. The major mistake in this film though is in the older daughter Alexandra. She is good and enjoyable but she changes into a completely different character very quickly after her introduction. I understand that she is meant to have grown up but its done so recklessly that there is no transition period. She goes from a drunken mess of a teenage girl to a wonderful daughter in the time it takes to duck her head under the water. I think an opportunity was missed to really break down Alexandra and make her a into a deeper character, one that could be related to easier.
All in all, I'm glad I watched The Descendants just to say I have seen it but I would never watch it again for the simple fact that I don't like being bored to death and now that I know all of the (small) twists and turns that take place, I think it would be unbearable!