August: Osage County (2013)
Drama

Academy Award Winners Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts star in the darkly hilarious and deeply touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives converge when a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional mother who raised them. Based on Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, Director John Wells skillfully translates from stage to screen, leading an all-star cast that includes Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard and Misty Upham.

Storyline: A look at the lives of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Oklahoma house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman on March 28, 2014 -- The "family reunion" film, long a staple of the Comedy genre but also one that frequently delves into dark humor and deep drama, finds one of its most thematically challenging and dramatically complex films in August: Osage County, Director John Wells' (The Company Men) picture sourced from Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. Though the film plays around with the occasional burst of subdued humor, it's primarily a sobering look at a dysfunctional family and the off-kilter individuals who make it so. In-fighting, anger, disappointment, and confusion reign as the family struggles to manufacture even the façade of friendly decorum when tragedy reunites them in the sweltering Oklahoma summer heat. An all-star cast and two Oscar-nominated performances lead the charge in one of the most well-acted films of the year, so well acted, in fact, that the performance authenticities might feel a little too real and revealing, leaving the film too dark and the audience too shaken by a nearly endless barrage of negativity.

It takes a tragedy to bring the Weston family together again, particularly back to the old house smack-dab in the middle of flyover country where the heat swelters and the temperature inside can only go higher when they're all reunited under one hot roof. Matriarch Violet (Meryl Streep) is in mourning, suffering from lung cancer, addicted to pills, and not particularly thrilled with her husband Beverly's (Sam Shepard) choice for a home care professional, a young, pretty woman of Native American descent named Johanna (Misty Upham). Returning home is Violet's more gregarious sister Mattie Fae Aiken (Margo Martindale) and her husband Charlie (Chris Cooper), and if he arrives on time, their absentminded son Little Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch). Also arriving are Violet's daughters Barbara (Julia Roberts), Karen (Juliette Lewis), and Ivy (Julianne Nicholson), Barbara's husband Bill (Ewan McGregor) and daughter Jean (Abigail Breslin), and Karen's boyfriend Steve (Dermot Mulroney).

Make no mistake, this is an oftentimes bleak, borderline disturbing movie that never relinquishes in its punishing portrayal of family dysfunction, harmful revelations, and general anger and chaos. The picture is defined by heated back-and-forths as old wounds reopen, old arguments take shape, old questions are again asked, old fears surface, and old ways book a return engagement. The picture traverses the fine line between dark comedy and dark drama and occasionally slips too far into the latter as the proverbial claws come out in nearly every scene. The movie is defined by a barrage of negative emotions and populated by characters with an uncanny ability to turn anything remotely good into something dreadfully bad, whether by necessity or simply through a lack of tact. August: Osage County is no fun, at least not in the traditional sense. It's cinema as something of a blunt instrument by which the audience is reminded that, yes, families fight and, no, most don't take it to this extreme. Flawed and wounded characters abound, be they aggressively flawed and openly wounded or a product of the broken family system. The negativity is a generational thing with this bunch, a trickle-down effect that seems to have at least been diluted through the years but that remains an inescapable prison when all of that soup is mixed back together in the boiling petri dish of the American heartland.

The cast is superb. No matter how dark things go, how hateful characters behave, how gloomy the outlook for a civil conversation, a mellow meal, or a simple smile may become, the actors remain in top form for every verbal blow. Oscar nominees Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts are excellent, the former sublime, in fact, in her portrayal of a frazzled, off-kilter, tactless, and in many ways hopeless pill addict, cancer patient, and grieving spouse. Streep's presence dominates the film, in large part because her character is so boisterous and black but also because of her commanding presence and effortless slip into character. Roberts, too, is quite good but feels overshadowed by several of her co-stars, particularly the bubbly Margo Martindale and both Chris Cooper and Benedict Cumberbatch, the latter of whom are two more flawed characters -- though more inwardly so -- but who nevertheless manage to bring an air of decency, decorum, and positivity to the proceedings. Their characters serve as reprieves from the hostility, even if they themselves become caught up in it, at times, both by their own doing and particularly when one becomes an unwitting pawn in a larger fight. The level of authenticity the cast brings to the film and the camaraderie and chemistry with which they interact, albeit a heavily negative chemistry and camaraderie, is the film's best asset and yet, in a way, the driving force behind the strain of a watch considering just how authentically they all blend together as combative family.

Most audiences experience this kind of thing every Thanksgiving. Does cinema really need to lay it all out in the open for two hours of teeth gnashing and fire breathing? August: Osage County does just that, but it does it exceptionally well. It's smartly acted, very well written, and expertly crafted, but there's not a whole lot of joy inside. The film often feels like it's dragging its audience across a floor covered by broken glass while a harsh, hot light pushes down from the ceiling and someone runs their fingernails down a chalkboard just to add insult to injury. It's uncomfortable cinema, but it's the proverbial train wreck from which one cannot look away. The truth is that the film does what it does with a brilliance and focus quite unlike any of its kind before it. That said, it's just too much if one's not in the proper frame of mind for it. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of August: Osage County does deliver spectacular video, excellent sound, and a fair array of extra content, including an excellent commentary track. The Blu-ray cover art also wins the award for "worst Photoshop job of the month." This is a film worth seeing, but it may require a little psyching up ahead of time.

[CSW] -3.2- This film should appeal to the same viewers who enjoy watching dysfunctional families in reality programming. I would have enjoyed this a little more when I was interested in the inner working of dysfunctional relationships and how to properly handle them but having moved past that learning period in my life this film is nothing more than a collection of different dysfunctional relationships. It does make for a strong drama but that is primarily because of the tremendous abilities and performances of the cast. If you don't appreciate the performances for its own sake this film becomes simply a long, drawn-out story about hateful and vicious wives and daughters and their long suffering husbands and son - with a bit of lechery and incest thrown in for good measure. The sheer star-power performances and not the story line pulled this one out of the weeds, for me anyway.
[V5.0-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

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