I rather enjoyed the fact that I was in the younger 10% of the audience when I went to see August: Osage County last Friday night. It made me feel grown-uppy and "cultured," instead of a bit childish (in the best way possible) coming out of Frozen, which I still recommend going to see. :)I assume this is a movie few people I know will end up watching, so there shall be spoilers contained below!
Set against a blistering Oklahoma backdrop, August: Osage County paints a picture of the Weston family, particularly following the women in the family. The pill-downing matriarch Violet (Meryl Streep) and her three daughters, Barbara (Julia Roberts), Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) and Karen (Juliette Lewis) have a highly dysfunctional relationship and rarely spend time together. At this moment in time they are brought together due to their father, Beverly (Sam Shepard), having gone missing.
SPOILER: Within a few days of the family assembling at Violet's house, Beverly's body is found and it is assumed that he committed suicide. His chronic drinking is presumed to have been a contributing factor.
As each daughter arrives, they bring their personal baggage along with them. Barbara arrives with her estranged husband, Bill (Ewan McGregor) and their 14 year old daughter, Jean (Abigail Breslin). Karen lives locally and provides drama in the form of secretly dating her cousin, Little Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch), who is the son of Violet's sister, Mattie Fae (Margo Martindale) and her husband, Charles (Chris Cooper). Ivy arrives just in time for the funeral with her new fiancé, Steve (Dermot Mulroney), in a bright red sports car. At a caustic dinner after the funeral (more on this later), we find out he's been married three times (so far).
SPOILER: As an example of their dysfunction, Violet notes to Barbara that the moment she hears her father is missing she comes running home, but that she didn't come back when she heard that Violet has contracted cancer of the mouth. Violet also later attributes Beverly's broken heart to Barbara leaving, since she was his favorite child.
The dinner after the funeral is a great example of the family dynamic. Violet takes great pleasure in "truth telling," which basically amounts to airing everyone's dirty laundry in front of the rest of the family. She not only tells everyone that Barbara and Bill have separated, but asks him if there's a younger woman involved. He says yes and Violet comments that time isn't on Barbara's side (she previously noted that women get uglier with age, while men can get more attractive). Pretty much everyone at the table gives Jean (Abigail Breslin) a hard time about being a vegetarian...although to be fair, it would be difficult not to teasing someone for not eating meat because you're "ingesting fear."
Shortly before Beverly disappeared, he hired a live-in Native American maid, Johnna (Misty Upham). She contributes to my favorite scene in the movie. Steve, Ivy's fiancé, figures out that Jean smokes pot and offers to hook her up with some of the "good stuff." Johnna hears them outside smoking one night and gets up to check on things when she hears Steve begin to talk inappropriately towards Jean. She gets to the back door and once she sees Steve getting handsy with Jean (who he knows is only 14), she picks up a shovel and starts to beat him with it. Her instant reaction was great and is one of the reasons she has the best character (as in not a bad person) out of anyone else in the movie.
I fully expect Meryl Streep to be nominated for an endless number of awards for her performance as Violet. The polar opposite of the chic and sophisticated roll she played in Devil Wears Prada, she definitely flexes her acting muscles in performing this character. Spiteful and malicious, her passive-aggressive barbs hurt all around her. She delights in the discomfort of others, though claiming that she's just "truth telling" and frequently falls back on her (very) horrible childhood and how everyone but her sister, Mattie Fae, had it so much easier and thus have no room to complain about their lots in life. The victim to the last, she ultimately loses all three of her daughters with little likelihood of being able to ever reclaim a relationship with them.
Julia Roberts also does a great job playing Barbara, a woman attempting to keep her world from falling apart, while also trying not to turn into her mother. Overall the whole movie was well cast, with the exception of Abigail Breslin. While she did a good enough job in the roll itself, it was hard to believe that her character was only 14 years old.
Profanity riddled throughout, this movie deserves it's R rating. For more information about content, check out the PluggedIn review.
Enjoy and Happy Tuesday!
~ Katie
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