August: Osage County

It's fitting that August: Osage County takes place in the middle of the sweltering heat.  At one point in the film, a digital temperature reading hits 108 degrees.  And most of the action is set in and around a massive home where the air conditioning doesn't work, and those inside it look like they're about to be driven mad from the heat.  Into this withering humidity is thrown a dysfunctional family who is forced to confront their past, present, and future.  This is a blistering and dark drama with one of the best cast ensembles of the year.

In adapting the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Broadway play, director John Wells (The Company Men) is wise to emphasize his cast and their performances, which really are what sell this material.  While the set up of the plot is simple enough, it holds more than enough surprises along the way, and the cast has to be ready to really dig into this dramatic material.  This is drama that needs to be big, without being bombastic, and for the most part, the movie and the cast within it hit that right note.  We've seen plenty of stories about dysfunctional families being forced to come together, but the original play by Tracy Letts (who also wrote the film's script) was famous for its dialogue, brutal honesty, and acidic verbal barbs, all of which carry through here.  This is a wonderful adaptation, and even though it runs shorter than the stage version (The play was three hours with two intermissions.  The movie runs only two hours), it doesn't feel like it's been hacked to pieces, nor does any of the strength of the play feel like it's been lost.

At the center of all the family animosity is Violet (Meryl Streep), a chain smoking and pill popping mother who, despite slowly dying from mouth cancer, still has quite the acidic tongue on her.  Her alcoholic poet husband, Beverly (Sam Shepard), has suddenly gone missing just days after hiring a live-in housekeeper to look after his wife.  Gathering at the home to comfort their mother and help look for their father are Violet's three daughters, Ivy (Julian Nicholson), Karen (Juliette Lewis), and Barbara (Julia Roberts).  The homecoming is not a sweet one, with Violet immediately laying blame on daughter Barbara for destroying her husband with the way she left home years ago.  As the family struggles to cope with each other and their own personal secrets, they are struck by another blow when it is revealed that Beverly has killed himself.  Now the family must stay together even longer for the funeral, allowing even more old wounds to reveal themselves.

Into the growing emotional chaos comes more family members to mourn Beverly's passing, including Violet's sister, Maggie (Margo Martindale), who seems sweet at first, but we learn that she can be just as brutal and cruel as Violet, particularly when it comes to her awkward son, Little Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch).  Maggie's husband, Charles (Chris Cooper), does what he can to keep the peace, but it gets harder as the film goes on, especially when their son announces that he is in love with somebody.  Adding to the overall bad feelings, Karen has brought her new fiance Steve (Dermot Mulroney) along, and it's clear that he may have his eye on Barbara's 14-year-old daughter, Jean (Abigail Breslin).  Also present is Barbara's husband Bill (Ewan McGregor), who is on the verge of leaving her.  All this, and I haven't even mentioned anything about the family secrets that threaten to tear the family apart during the week they spend together.

Whether it's on the stage or the screen, putting the different pieces of August: Osage County together must often feel like a complex balancing act, as you must balance a wide range of tones, which range from dark drama to equally dark comedy, as well as a diverse group of characters and actors.  The plot is often all over the place, as it cuts back and forth through multiple plot lines and relationships that must be kept in motion, so that they do not seem stagnant, and must run throughout the entire film.  The direction of the film is simple, focusing entirely on the actors, instead of giving us complex visual flair, which is for the best in this case.  John Wells does not want us to lose track of these multiple characters and plots, and so by planting his camera in the middle of it all, we can savor Letts' dialogue and complicated story arcs.

The movie is also wise to keep this large group of talented actors mainly working together as a group.  Yes, almost everybody in the cast gets their "big moment" in the film to stand out, but this is largely an ensemble piece.  Of the cast, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts get the meatiest roles, and they are both wonderful as they tackle this vicious material.  Roberts, in particular, has never given a better dramatic performance than this.  These are flashy dramatic performances, and they are expertly delivered.  And yet, the movie also has time for some quieter performances, mainly from the men in the film.  In particular, Chris Cooper and Benedict Cumberbatch are wonderful as an understanding father, and an adult son who has been broken down by life, respectively.  And even though he only has one scene in the film, Sam Shepard brings a quiet dignity to his role as the father whose disappearance kick starts this whole mess.

I can understand how some viewers can be turned off by August: Osage County.  It is relentlessly bleak, with only a few moments of dark humor to lighten the mood now and then.  The fact that the studio seems to be trying to sell it as a lighthearted comedy about a family coming together means they either missed the boat, or didn't even understand their own movie.  The only misstep the movie makes is with its final shot, which feels tacked on.  If the movie had ended at the exact moment the play did, it would have been perfect.  But, because of that last shot, what should be a devastating and powerful ending winds up being oddly hopeful.

See the movie times in your are or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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