August: Osage County (2013)

Directed by: John Wells
Country: USA

Movie Review: Counting with George Clooney and Weinstein brothers as producers and based on Tracy Letts’ celebrated play with the same name, “August: Osage County" cinematic adaptation by John Wells was part satisfying and part disappointment. In the summer heat of Oklahoma, the three Weston sisters, Barbara (Julia Roberts), Ivy (Julianne Nicholson), and Karen (Juliette Lewis), reunite with their drug-addict, poignant, and sick mother, Violet (Meryl Streep), for her husband’s funeral after he has committed suicide. The story can be resumed by the following formula: failed marriages + meanness + secrets + fucked up parents/children relationships = solitude. John Well’s direction oscillates between raw and stagey, and the cast saves the film from bitterer outcomes. When tension is forced everywhere and on every single character, I involuntarily just stop to care about them, but then the genius of Meryl Streep came up again, taking the film to those sarcastic, funny places, where we can’t help having a happy laugh, even in sad circumstances. Julia Roberts wasn’t bad at all as bossy, aggressive and angered daughter, but for my second best performance I pick up Margo Martindale who played Violet’s sister in a very funny and natural manner. Comparing with two other 2013 films that are both directly and indirectly related with dysfunctional families, “August: Osage County” was wittier than “Cold Turkey” but less assertive than “The Way Way Back”. Definitely, it will be better remembered for its stinging humor rather than for its dramatic side.