Here’s why ‘The Revenant’ shouldn’t win best picture

With a pack-leading 12 nominations, “The Revenant” appears to be the movie to beat in this year’s Academy Awards race.

Of course, Oscar history is filled with titles that were nominated in all sorts of categories but failed to nail any of the biggies. But “The Revenant” opened at the very end of the year (not till last week in Kansas City) and is building momentum, fueled by recent wins at the Golden Globes (best dramatic film, best actor in a drama, best director) and sympathy and adoration for its star, Leonardo DiCaprio, nominated five times previously with no wins.

It’s a big, ambitious action yarn set on the American frontier of the 1820s. It pushes filmmaking technology and the endurance of its cast and crew to the limit. And it is audience-friendly in ways that best picture nominees have rarely been in recent years (think last year’s “Birdman” and “12 Years a Slave” the year before).

But it does not deserve to win best picture at the ceremony Feb. 28. That honor should go to a smaller movie that did not pick up a pile of technical nominations.

[The 5 worst Oscar snubs — especially that lily-white acting list]

A few seasons back the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tried to democratize the awards process by expanding the best picture nominations from five to as many as 10 (this year eight films are competing for the top honor). The idea was that the extra slots would allow for the nomination of big popular films (like, say, “The Dark Knight”) that a majority of moviegoers had actually seen. That, in turn, would theoretically lead to bigger audiences for the awards ceremony and more advertising dollars.

Of course it rarely worked out like that. The academy voters used those extra nominations mostly to honor yet more small, ambitious, artsy titles. Blockbusters were pretty much shut out.

So we have to give credit to the makers of “The Revenant” for delivering a popular film so impressive that the academy voters had to take notice.

But here’s the thing: “The Revenant” never hit my sweet spot, that emotional nexus that tells me I’m seeing something great instead of something merely good.

Oh, it’s got plenty going for it, including DiCaprio suffering as a maimed fur trapper stumbling across mountains and plains to exact revenge on the man who left him for dead (Tom Hardy, nominated for supporting actor).

I cannot name another film so overwhelmingly sensory — it’s a symphony of sight and sound. There are moments when you swear you can feel snowflakes falling onto your face. And it leaves the viewer with an indelible sense of the grandeur and terror of the American wilderness.

But, again, “The Revenant” comes up short.

The journey of frontiersman Hugh Glass is filled with physical torment, but save for his fierce survivor instincts the character isn’t particularly interesting. His emotional palette is limited to fear and hate.

The same thing that bothered me about “The Revenant” also casts a pall on “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which earned 10 nominations, including best picture and director. It’s visually splendid, bizarrely funny and over-the-top weird — but it’s also superficial and cartoonish.

More successful is another best picture contender, “The Martian,” with seven nominations. Here’s a hugely enjoyable adventure about a stranded astronaut that combines suspense, comedy and tons of technology to tell a very human tale.

Matt Damon deserves to win best actor for a performance that covers all the emotional bases, and it’s wrapped in an uplifting story about how an international rescue effort brings the world together, if only for a moment.

Best picture nominees “Spotlight” and “The Big Short” are torn-from-the-headlines stories about the pedophile priest crisis and the 2008 housing market collapse. The first is calmly matter-of-fact, the second savagely satirical, but both leave audiences engaged and really, really angry. They are powerful films.

“Bridge of Spies” was an effective Cold War thriller buoyed by another fine Tom Hanks performance. But at this point it feels like an also-ran.

Finally there’s “Room” and “Brooklyn,” both deeply affecting “little” films of the sort that the Oscar nomination process has favored in recent years.

“Room” is a devastating study of a child and his mother (Brie Larson, nominated for best actress) imprisoned by a sexual predator. It’s not an easy film to watch or digest, but it is undeniably powerful.

But for my money the standout this year was “Brooklyn,” a quietly moving, deeply life-affirming story of a young Irish woman who immigrates to New York City in the early 1950s. Saoirse Ronan, 21, is transcendent in a performance that speaks volumes about the human experience. She should win best actress.

“Brooklyn” is an unassuming story about hope and love that embodies what great cinematic storytelling is all about. I enjoy spectacle, sure, but it has to take second place to that feeling in my chest when I’ve been well and truly moved.

The best picture race, by the numbers

Sharon Hoffmann, shoffmann@kcstar.com

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 12:06 PM with the headline "Here’s why ‘The Revenant’ shouldn’t win best picture."