August: Osage County

Broadway to Hollywood


(The Sun) HAMBURG —
Saturday January 18, 2014

 August: Osage County by Tony Baksa
Tracy Letts is an actor/playwright. He is a very good actor and a superb pl...aywright. His Tony Award winning play has been turned into a rather riveting movie starring the equally riveting Meryl Streep. Costarring is a bunch of heavy hitters – all turning in top performances. Julia Roberts leads the pack along with Chris Cooper, Dermot Mulroney, Ewan McGregor, Sam Shepherd and Juliette Lewis.

What Letts has penned is an episode in the life of a family in Oklahoma, the Westons, suffering from extreme dysfunction. The old saying comes to mind; “Everything but the kitchen sink”. I would modify this pertaining to the film - “Everything plus the kitchen sink”. I mean, name it and this family has it. Yet, despite this excess of dysfunction or perhaps because of it, “August: Osage County” is a moving and very entertaining opus.

Front and center is Violet Weston (Streep) - a ball of nerves, weakness, strength and a pulsating mean streak a mile long. Strong-willed matriarch Violet has three grown daughters and a poet husband (Sam Shepherd). The daughters are as different as rock, scissors, and paper. Karen (Juliette Lewis) who lives in Florida flits from one man to another desperately searching for stability. Barbara (Julia Roberts) lives in Colorado with her 14 year old daughter. She seems the most grounded of the sisters although she displays traits dangerously close to her demeaning volatile mother. Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) is the only daughter who has remained home in Oklahoma – unmarried, shy, secretive and shimmering with an aura of sadness.

The family gathers from all parts including spouses and children after the family patriarch goes missing, then is found dead – drowned near his fishing boat. There is some hint that it may have been suicide. This is the dramatic jumping off point of the film so please rest assured that I am not giving anything away. This device of a family gathering after the death of a father is a familiar theatrical cliché - but what a powerful spring board to rich drama and comedy.

The movie is a verbal symphony of rage, sarcasm, humor and eloquence. Streep delivers an emotionally charged monologue near the end of the film about a Christmas present she received as a child that left me breathless. We see why Violet has become such an emotionally broken person - where the seed was planted. It is fortunate that playwright Letts adapted his play for the screen. His writing is not unlike Eugene O’Neill with touches of Edward Albee here and there. There is another monologue delivered by Chris Cooper as Violet’s brother-in-law that is equally powerful and, for me, uncovers the buried soul of this hurting family.

Dark secrets and surprising revelations abound. Mother and daughters lash out verbally and physically - shockingly so. There are plenty of laughs – but another saying comes to mind “It only hurts when I laugh” Despite the comedic quips that are sprinkled throughout – mostly by Streep – this is not a comedy. It is a serious portrait of a family afflicted with a legacy of meanness. These are good people behaving badly. They are all in conflict with their sordid history.

Let me reiterate, despite the serious subject matter, “August: Osage County” is very entertaining. Meryl Streep gives arguably the bravest performance of her illustrious career playing a woman that one would be hard pressed to like. She pulls it off brilliantly straight through to her final devastating moments.

August: Osage County is currently in theaters everywhere.