‘The Descendants‘, George Clooney’s latest movie, tells the story of Matt King (George Clooney), who is living in Hawaii with his wife and two daughters. His wife suffers a massive head injuries during a boating accident and falls into a deep coma. Matt has always been busy with his job and his travelling so he decides to stay with his daughters and tries to protect them from their common tragedy. Meanwhile, Matt discovers the real truth about his wife; that she has been having an affair with a real estate guru. Alongside his daughters, Matt must learn how to deal with his wife’s infidelity, his life, and the meaning of family. The movie is a blend of comedy and serious emotion that will make any heart bleed if it has ever gone through an unexpected personal trauma.

The Descendants has been nominated for some of the main Oscar awards this year; looking at Best Picture, Best Director (Alexander Payne), Best Actor (Clooney), Best Adapted Screenplay (Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash), and Best Editing (Kevin Tent).

The rest of the field for Best Picture is mirrored by different facets of cinema: “Hugo”; “The Artist”; “Midnight in Paris”; “The Help”; “Moneyball”; all have their stronger and weaker points. But the question is: Are the cinematic triumph of The Descendants strong enough to secure any of the five awards it has been nominated for?

George Clooney’s fans and critics believe that his performance is in a league of its own: “Clooney’s performance as Matt may be the best of his career,” says Phil Wallace of Picktainment.com. This seems to be true because he was capable of conveying to the audience the pain, the suffering and the strength of a husband and father who is thrown into the truth about his life. Clooney has never taken on a character like this before. Even thought Matt is vulnerable, a powerless father and a widower, Clooney shows that even a character like this is within his reach as an actor.

This year’s nominations are dominated by Michel Hazanavicius’s ‘The Artist‘, with 10 nominations, and Martin Scorsese’s ‘Hugo‘ with 11 nominations, giving The Descendants tough competition for the win. Although The Descendants may not sweep the winning table, no one can deny Clooney’s hard work and Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rush efforts with their screenplay, which may land them  the award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Image Courtesy © Douglas Kirkland 2012

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The Descendants has been nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Alexander Payne) and Best Actor (George Clooney).  Building on the success of the film, the The Descendants soundtrack, available now from Sony Classical, has been #1 on Billboard’s World Music chart for the last seven consecutive weeks.

From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning Sideways, set in Hawaii, The Descendants is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki.

The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.  The film, from Fox Searchlight Pictures, opened in the U.S. on November 16th.

The Descendants, based on Kaui Hart Hemmings’ highly acclaimed novel of the same name, is scored exclusively with Hawaiian music. Hemmings, who comes from Hawaii, weaves into her writing the island themes of family, soil and inheritance, and the movie too has a strong sense of place, not least thanks to its soundtrack. Given the intention of the filmmakers to lend the movie a distinct Hawaiian flavour, the natural direction to take was to use the sounds of the islands, and the music plays a crucial part in evoking an authentic mood.

Most of the titles on the soundtrack feature established masters of Hawaiian music, whether modern and classical: names such as Gabby Pahinui, Ray Kane, Keola Beamer, Lena Machado, Sonny Chillingworth,Jeff Peterson, and Rev. Dennis Kamakahi.

The soundtrack of The Descendants not only serves to remind movie-goers of a memorable film, but also opens up a superb cross-section of Hawaiian music over the decades to listeners unfamiliar with this genre. It provides the best possible introduction to some of the greatest masters of this soulful music.

Tracklisting:

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Leading online betting firm, Sky Bet, has unveiled its full list of Oscars betting markets following the announcement of the 84th Academy Awards nominations on Tuesday, January 24.

Black and white silent movie, ‘The Artist’, which last week picked up the Producers Guild Award and also won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy/Musical, is Sky Bet’s clear favorite to win Best Picture at 2/7, with the odds having been cut from a pre-Christmas 2/1.

The French tribute to the silent movie has ten Oscar bids, although it was beaten by Scorsese’s 3D charmer ‘Hugo’, which received 11 nods. This augurs well for its Best Picture hopes as the most nominated film has taken the top prize 15 times in the last 20 years, and Sky Bet makes ‘Hugo’ a 10/1 shot behind Golden Globe Best Drama champion, ‘The Descendants’ (4/1).

‘The Artist’ dominates several other categories with its helmsman, Michel Hazanavicius, as an odds-on favorite (8/13) to win Best Director and its leading man, Jean Dujardin, second in the Best Actor betting at 2/1. George Clooney is a hot favorite at 2/5 to take home the lead actor gong for his performance in the comedy-drama, ‘The Descendants’. Gary Oldman picked up his first ever Oscar nomination for ‘Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy’ and is quoted at 33/1.

Double Oscar winner and 17-time nominee, Meryl Streep, is the short-priced favorite at 1/2 to scoop a third gong for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady’. Viola Davis is her nearest rival for Best Actress at 9/4, with ‘My Week with Marilyn’ star, Michelle Williams, another threat at 11/4.

Sky Bet’s Oscars betting expert, Helen Jacob, said, “The Artist seems way ahead of its rivals in the race to win the top Oscar. ”Other categories, however, are not so clean-cut, with the battle for best actress between Meryl Streep and Viola Davis looking particularly close.”

For Best Supporting Actor, Christopher Plummer (‘Beginners’) is at 1/12, and Octavia Spencer is at 1/8 (‘The Help’) and looks to have the Best Supporting Actress category sewn up.

Sky Bet is also offering a host of novelty special bets on the Oscars ceremony itself, which takes place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, February 26.

Veteran actress, Meryl Streep, accidentally swore onstage at the Globes and Sky Bet goes 7/2 that the Oscars best actress winner turns the air blue again in her acceptance speech. It is even money that the best actress cries during her speech, and 10/1 that any recipient’s address consists of a single ‘Thank you!’

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