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| Courtesy of The Weinstein Company |
Tracy
Letts’ play August: Osage County was good enough to win the Pulitzer Prize for
Drama in 2008, but I’m thinking something got lost in the work’s transition
from stage to screen. It’s not a terrible movie by any means – the story is
compelling, most of the performances are solid and there’s plenty of wickedly
dark comedy. But Letts (who also wrote the screenplay) and director John Wells
(primarily known for his television work) struggle to overcome a couple of core
problems right from the opening scene.
The
film focuses on the Weston family, a deeply dysfunctional brood who avoid seeing
each other most of the time. Two of the daughters (Julia Roberts and Juliette
Lewis) fled Oklahoma as soon as they were old enough, but they’re forced to
come back home when their sister (Julianne Nicholson) reveals that their kindhearted
father (Sam Shepard) has disappeared and she needs help taking care of their
toxic mother (Meryl Streep).
So
the long-gone women return to their childhood home with their families in tow
(including Ewan McGregor as Roberts’ pompous husband, Abigail Breslin as her surly
daughter and Dermot Mulroney as Lewis’ slimy fiancé), forced to stay under the
same roof with the woman who caused them to leave in the first place. Throw in
further drama from visiting relatives (played by Margo Martindale, Chris Cooper
and Benedict Cumberbatch) and the house becomes a pressure cooker that’s
destined to explode.
Despite
the ultra-dark material (missing dad is a raging alcoholic, mom is an unabashed
pill-popper, and there are some other disturbing plot twists I don’t want to
spoil), the film plays like a foul-mouthed episode of Designing Women. There’s lots of talk about strong women, the men who let them down and the
children who don’t appreciate them, which worked like gangbusters for the audience
in my screening. (Pretty sure I was about three decades younger than everyone
else.)
The
biggest problem (which seems like blasphemy to put in writing) is Streep’s
performance. She’s considered our greatest living actress for a reason, but
here she goes bigger than I’ve ever seen her. Melodramatic is an understatement
– her character in a cartoon in human skin. My only guess is that Wells,
directing his second feature, was afraid of telling her to take it down a
notch. Or 10. Roberts plays her scenes gigantic as well, but it works in her case
since she’s doing it in self-defense. She can either match Streep or get chewed
up with the rest of the scenery.
My
other concern is with the film’s third-act revelation about one of the film’s
relationships. It takes the two characters involved from Midwest Gothic cliché
to outright offensive stereotype. Again, maybe some context got lost in the
adaptation.
Still,
more nuanced performances from Nicholson, Martindale, Cooper and Cumberbatch
(even though he’s playing a plot development instead of a character) make
August: Osage County a decent watch. Just know going in that it’s nowhere
close to the tone established by the misleading trailers.
August: Osage County is rated R for
Grade:
B-
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