Having just opened nationally this weekend, August: Osage County features a marvelous cast delivering an outstanding script. A must-see.
August: Osage County (Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Margo Martindale. Dermot Mulroney, Ewan McGregor, Julianne Nicholson, Juliette Lewis, Sam Shepard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Abigail Breslin) – Ensemble films are often a disaster. They always feature an all-star cast but lack continuity, devolve into vignettes, and never develop a natural pace. August: Osage County has no such problem.
For sure, there is an all-star cast who seemingly put their egos (and their big salaries) aside, letting the superb writing and plot lines carry the action. Led by the always-perfect Meryl Streep as Violet Weston, the matriarch of a totally dysfunctional family, this film is an adaptation of a play by actor Tracy Letts. Letts wrote the screenplay so expect an Oscar nomination for “Adapted” Screenplay. The writing is clever, witty, funny, sad, poignant, heart-stopping, and heart rending, keeping the pace lighter than we might expect given the fact that the family is reuniting after the suicide of the patriarch, Beverly Weston (yes, Beverly is a male name).
In this way, the movie resembles The Big Chill. Set amidst the chaos of a suicide, a group of damaged people gather to deal with their own feelings, their secrets, their lies, and their failed mutual history. What we get is a donnybrook. Violet is hooked on prescription drugs. She is also uncontrollable, unrelenting, and totally unlikeable. She also has cancer of the mouth but continues to smoke and takes her illness as a license to lash out and criticize everyone. Streep carries it all off beautifully.
Julia Roberts plays the oldest of her three daughters, Barbara. She has her own problems: a daughter (Abigail Breslin) who smokes pot and has no time for mom, a husband (Ewan McGregor) from whom she is separated and who is cheating on her with a younger woman, and a self-righteousness that borders on compulsive. Julianne Nicholson, the least recognizable actor in the film, plays the dutiful middle daughter, Ivey. She has stayed close to home and cares for her mother although she has a secret of her own. Ivey was never the favorite daughter, but she assumed the caregiver role while giving up her own dreams. The youngest sister, Karen (played by Juliette Lewis), is ditzy, lost, and engaged to Steve (Dermot Mulroney), who has been married three times before. Like many families, the siblings have had almost no communication. Barbara and Karen avoid every opportunity to visit their childhood home even though they love their dad; they just can’t deal with mom’s abusive behavior.
Add to the mix Violet’s sister, Mattie Fay Aiken (Margo Martindale), her husband, Charlie (Chris Cooper), and their very sensitive adult son, “Little” Charlie (Benedict Cumberbatch), and what could have been a disaster of over-casting becomes a layered, painful peak into a rural Oklahoma family. The interactions of this nuclear family make the movie go.
The movie feels like a play with almost all of the action taking place in and around the home. Again, this could have doomed the movie. But the acting is so good that we get an insightful glimpse into almost all of the characters. Streep and Roberts provide the focus for the film but special acknowledgement should go to Martindale, Nicholson, and especially Cooper (who starred in Adaptation with Streep). Cooper’s Charlie clearly is the only “normal” person in the family; he oozes integrity, believes in the bond of family, and truly loves everyone. His character is the only one we, as the audience, would want to spend much time with.
Despite the very serious theme, we laugh with and at the family one moment while being shocked by the series of revelations that are meticulously revealed over the two-hour course of the film.
Lots of award nominations have come for this film and rightfully so. Oscar nods are likely for Streep, Roberts, perhaps one or more of the supporting actors mentioned above, the film, the screenplay, and possibly for director John Wells, who has spent most of his career in television (his film, The Company Men, featured Chris Cooper).
Seeing this film may be difficult for many people. After all, there are a lot of dysfunctional families out there. And all of us have attended the forced family reunions due to funerals. August: Osage County is a marvelous film. The theater was packed and skewed old (we brought down the average age), which means the box office take will be modest. Don’t miss this fine ensemble flick.