August: Osage County

Film (2013)

With Meryl Streep (Violet Weston), Julia Roberts (Barbara Weston), Chris Cooper (Charlie Aiken), Ewan McGregor (Bill Fordham), Margo Martindale (Mattie Fae Aiken), Sam Shepard (Beverly Weston), Dermot Mulroney (Steve Huberbrecht), Julianne Nicholson (Ivy Weston), Juliette Lewis (Karen Weston), Abigail Breslin (Jean Fordham), Benedict Cumberbatch (Little Charles Aiken)

Beverly Weston (Sam Shepard) is a poet who drinks and Violet (Meryl Streep) is his wife who pops pills, a lot of them. She also has mouth cancer and is in none too great shape. An unexpected event brings the family together. Three daughters of Beverly’s and Violet’s, and Violet’s sister, Mattie Fay (Margo Martindale) and her family all show up and the fireworks begin.

I never got a chance to see this play which, in 2007, made a huge hit on Broadway. It is epic in length, and having some sense of the scope of its drama from the film, I can only imagine the intensity of the production on stage. It makes me think a bit of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which details the drug and alcohol induced craziness of an Irish-American family in Connecticut.

Here, the supplemental chemistry is similar, but the setting is Western and the dynamics are a bit different. Nonetheless, for much of the duration of these works, one watches families that could use some serious therapy. And then, in the final stages of the drama, something particularly intense kicks in and makes it valuable as tragedy.

I saw Tracy Letts’ superb play Superior Donuts at the Lyric Stage in 2012. The writing and the production were simply outstanding.

The current film version of August: Osage County has a passel of great actors and there are certainly some really wonderful performances here. In fact, I’d say that most of the performances are wonderful.

Streep does a fabulous job as Violet and paints a beautifully hybrid portrait of a woman totally compromised and on the edge and someone in full control of her environment.

Julia Roberts has one of the best opportunities of her career, and really gives it her all in this intense and jarring role. It’s great to see her pull out the stops and really act. And though she looks great here, her age shows, and it’s refreshing to see that plainly revealed.

Britishers Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch show up and give good weight as Barbara’s husband Bill, and her cousin, Little Charles.

Chris Cooper does a great turn as Charlie, a decent and compassionate father to Little Charles.

Despite all these good performances, however, there is something seriously wanting in this film. It simply does not cohere dramatically. It wanders and has a kind of vagueness to its pacing, which strikes me, first, as a problem in film editing. Its transitions are awkward and tonally inconsistent. At most times, the film operates as a serious drama, but there are turns in the editing which seem obtusely whimsical and out of kilter. It just does not hang together.

So, sadly, here is a film with a stellar cast and presumably a fine playscript as its foundation which simply does not work as a film. I would still recommend it to anyone who wanted to see this group of talented actors strut their stuff, with a cautionary note about overall expectations.

– BADMan