August: Osage County

Plot synopsis:
The action takes place over the course of several weeks in August inside the three-story home of Beverly and Violet Weston outside Pawhuska, Oklahoma.
Prologue
The play opens with Beverly Weston, a once-famous poet, interviewing Johnna, a young Cheyenne woman, for a position as live-in cook and caregiver for his wife Violet, who is being treated for mouth cancer due to heavy cigarette use for most of her life. Violet is addicted to several different kinds of prescription drugs and exhibits paranoia and mood swings. Beverly, who freely admits that he is an alcoholic, lightly converses about Violet's current problems, most of which Beverly concedes are the result of personal demons too powerful to be cured by drugs. Violet enters the scene clearly affected by her drugs. After an incoherent and combative argument with Beverly, Violet returns upstairs. Beverly hires Johnna, lends her a book of TS Eliot's poetry, and continues to drink.
Act One
Several weeks later. Beverly Weston has not been seen for five days. Several family members have gathered in the house to provide support for Violet including her daughter Ivy, her sister Mattie Fae and Mattie Fae's husband Charlie. When Violet is not making calls attempting to track down her husband or popping pills, she spends the time sniping at her family, particularly Ivy, whom she criticizes for her mode of dress and lack of a romantic life. The news comes that Beverly's boat is missing, furthering the fear that he has committed suicide. Ivy's older sister Barbara arrives from Boulder, Colorado with her husband Bill and 14-year-old daughter Jean. Barbara has not visited her mother in several years, and has mixed feelings about returning to the house because of the confrontational nature of their relationship. They fall into an argument almost immediately, during which Violet accuses her of abandoning her family and breaking her father's heart.
Later in the evening, Jean bonds with Johnna after the older woman allows her to smoke some marijuana in her room. She confides to Johnna that her parents are separated and are attempting to hide the fact from the family. Bill and Barbara argue over the cause of their separation as they make a bed out of the fold-out sofa in the living room: Bill is sleeping with a much-younger woman, one of his students at the university where he teaches. At five AM, the local sheriff, Deon Gilbeau (Barbara's high school boyfriend) rings the doorbell and breaks the news that Beverly has been found drowned. Barbara goes to identify the body as Violet comes downstairs in a drug-addled fog. The act ends with her spiraling into confusion.
Act Two
Several days later. The family has come from Beverly's funeral. Violet spends a quiet moment alone in Beverly's office, bitterly reproaching him for leaving her, and takes some more pills. Before the memorial dinner prepared for the family by Johnna, several family arguments and scenes arise. Ivy and Barbara's sister Karen has flown in from Florida with her new fiancé and can talk about nothing except her wedding plans, distressing Barbara. During an argument with her mother and Mattie Fae, Ivy unwittingly confesses that she is seeing someone romantically but refuses to say who. Mattie Fae and Charlie's son Little Charles has overslept and missed the funeral. His father is sympathetic but Mattie Fae is, as usual, rude to and critical of her son. Karen's fiancé Steve discovers that Jean is a pot-smoker and offers to share his stash with her, lewdly flirting with the teenaged girl. In a private moment, it is revealed that Ivy's lover is actually Little Charles, her first cousin.
Dinner is served, and Violet begins insulting and needling all of her family members. After inappropriately discussing Beverly's will at the table, she cruelly exposes Barbara and Bill's separation. When Barbara starts to fight back, Violet tauntingly reveals the full extent of her addiction, and the tensions develop into a violent confrontation, culminating in Barbara physically attacking her mother. After family members separate them, Barbara takes control of the situation, ordering that the family raid the house to discover all of Violet's hiding places for her pills.
Act Three
Several hours later things have calmed down, but the pain of the dinner confrontation has not gone away. Barbara reports that Violet's doctor thinks she has brain damage, and the three sisters share a drink in their father's study, discussing their mother. Ivy reveals that she and Little Charles are planning to run away to New York, and refuses to acknowledge the need for someone to take care of Violet. She reveals that it was Violet, not Beverly, who was heartbroken when Barbara left Oklahoma. Violet enters, now more coherent and off her drugs but no less incorrigible, is resigned to dealing with her demise on her own terms. She discusses a depressing story from her childhood with her daughters. In a private moment, Barbara and Violet apologize to each other, but it is uncertain how long the peace will last.
Mattie Fae observes a tender moment between Little Charles and Ivy, and begins taunting him again when the ever-patient Charlie finally loses his temper with his wife, berating her for her cruelty to her own son and promising her that unless she can find a way to be kind to Little Charles, he is going to leave her. The lecture is accidentally overheard by Barbara, who confirms when pressed that Little Charles and Ivy are lovers. She is shocked when Mattie Fae reveals that Little Charles is not just Ivy's first cousin but also her half-brother, the result of a long-ago affair between Mattie Fae and Beverly. Mattie Fae refuses to tell Ivy or Little Charles the truth, leaving it up to Barbara, who knows that the news will destroy Ivy, to find a way to end the incestuous affair.
Late that night, Steve and Jean share a joint, and before long, Steve attempts to molest Jean. Johnna walks in on the scene and attacks Steve with a shovel; the noise brings Jean's parents and Karen to the scene. An ugly argument follows when Jean defensively lashes out at her parents with hurtful comments about her father's affair, and Barbara slaps her. Karen leaves with Steve, choosing to lie to herself and mistakenly blaming Jean for what happened. Bill elects to return to Boulder with Jean and admits, when Barbara confronts him, that he is not going to come back to her. He leaves as Barbara tells him she loves him.
Two weeks pass. Barbara, now drinking heavily, offers Johnna a chance to quit and leave the toxic environment of the Weston house, but she chooses to stay. Sheriff Gilbeau drops by the house with the news that Beverly had stayed at a motel shortly before he committed suicide. He and Barbara nearly share a tender moment, but she is too emotionally exhausted and drunk to consummate it.
Several days later, Ivy has dinner with Barbara and Violet. Ivy attempts to tell her mother, over Barbara's objections, of her plans with Little Charles but Violet suddenly confesses that she already knows that Little Charles is Beverly's son. Ivy recoils in shock and horror, rebuffing Barbara's attempts to comfort her, and says that she will never tell him and leaves for New York anyway. Violet calmly reveals that she has deliberately destroyed Ivy and Charles' affair, which she knew of the entire time. Barbara and her mother have one last angry confrontation during which Violet blames Barbara for her father's suicide. Violet also reveals his suicide might have been preventable since she knew which motel he stayed in the night he left the house. Barbara, realizing that her Mother has slipped beyond her help, leaves the house. Violet breaks down and is left only with Johnna, who ends the play with a quotation from a T.S. Eliot poem: "This is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends."

Tags: boring, storytelling

Review:
But the acting is so terrific, the roles so strong, that you don't want to miss it.It's the story of the Weston family: Violet, a drug-addicted cancer patient (Meryl Streep); her husband Beverley, a well-known poet (Sam Shepard); their daughters Barbara (Julia Roberts), Karen (Juliette Lewis), and Ivy (Julianne Nicholson); Violet's sister Minnie Fae Aiken (Margo Martindale), her husband Charles (Chris Cooper), and their son, known as Little Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch).When Beverley commits suicide, the family gathers and it's wretched from the beginning.
Violet is totally drugged, Barbara and her husband (Ewan McGregor) are in the process of breaking up, Ivy has a secret boyfriend and, though she stayed behind and has been caring for her mother, she's ready to leave for New York, and Karen arrives with her fiancée (Dermot Mulroney) who has been married three times and seems a little too interested in Barbara's 14-year-old daughter.
That's the bargain we've struck." Beverly Watson (Sam Shepherd)Let the acting begin: As if the race had begun to determine the most disaffected member of the most dysfunctional family ever depicted on film, August: Osage County is the most violent film this year without a drop of visible blood.In order to pull off this Eugene O'Neil-Tennessee Williamsl-Sam Shepherd-like dramatic version of Tracy Letts' play (Letts is the screenwriter as well), director John Wells needed to have an A-list cast; he does just that.
In arguably the best acting of the year, Meryl Streep plays Violet Weston, the drug-addled schizophrenic matriarch of a family where dinners end up with broken plates and hearts.
Although her performance is a tour de force (when are hers not?), the Oscar may elude her this time because her character is so unlikeable, and, well, she eats most of the available scenery.Heading the rest of the cast is Julia Roberts as daughter Barbara Weston, a soon-to-be-divorced realist absorbing the punches of mom and Barbara's Pippi-Longstocking-chasing husband (Ewan McGregor) until she almost can't take it anymore.
This is an exceptionally challenging film and most won't be able to stay with it as it hurtles, repeatedly, from hysterical comedy to blackest tragedy in almost the same breath - the term "tragicomedy" never fit a film so well ...There are some stupendous performances here, Meryl Streep in particular but Roberts is outstanding too amongst a superb ensemble cast - the script is firecrackingly terrific and the (less is more when you've got this much going on ...) direction is perfect too ...You know something?
Though nearly 40 minutes of Tracy Lett's Pulitzer Prize winning dramedy have been shaved for the screen version, "August: Osage County" still manages to deliver on the towering play's hearty laughs, gasp inducing shocks, and well earned tears.While it is hardly the best adaptation of a play to a film, as much of the film still retains it's indoor, staging setting, it is boosted by some sterling performances of actors at the top of their craft.
Julianne Nicholson is both quiet yet fiercely determined as middle daughter Ivy. Sam Sheppard is amazing in the even more truncated role of the Weston family patriarch who goes missing, and Misty Upham is so good with so little to say as the young Indian woman, Johnna, tossed into a family in turmoil.Of course the turmoil is led by the Medea-of-the-Midwest, Violet, played for every ounce by Meryl Streep in one of her most indelible performances ever.
Before I even start to talk about John Wells' new film "August: Osage County," I have to say I've never seen the stage play or read it by writer Tracy Letts.
I walked out of the theater feeling the same way I felt following the end credits of "Doubt." Streep excels in many areas of acting, but I feel when it comes to stage adaptations to the big screen, Streep doesn't live in the character as comfortably as she would in any other role.
As "Little Charles," he definitely has the narrative's most sympathetic story but more importantly, in a film that is full of despicable people, he manages to pull the audience in to root for him, even when you know he's doing something terribly wrong.I've longed for Juliette Lewis to get back in Oscar's graces following her nomination over twenty years ago in Martin Scorsese's "Cape Fear." She as dynamic as we've seen her in the last few years, delivering her best turn yet as Karen.
Violet Wetson (Meryl Streep) reunites with her three willful daughters, Barbara (Julia Roberts), Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) and Karen (Juliette Lewis) when there was a death in the family.
This time out, he adapts his own play for director John Wells' (The Company Men, TV's "ER") screen version of August: Osage County.With an ensemble cast matched by very few movies over the years, the screen version begins with what may be its best scene.
This extraordinary pre-credits scene sets the stage for the entire movie, which unfortunately only approaches this high standard a couple more times.Despite the film's flaws, there is no denying the "train-wreck" effect of not being able to look away from this most dysfunctional family.
Most of this is due to the screen presence of a steady stream of talented actors: in addition to Streep and Shephard, we get their 3 daughters played by Julia Roberts (Barbara), Julianne Nicholson (Ivy) and Juliette Lewis (Karen); Ewan McGregor and Abigail Breslin as Roberts' husband and daughter; Margo Martindale (Violet's sister), her husband Chris Cooper (Charles) and their son Benedict Cumberbatch.As with most dysfunctional family movies, there is a dinner table scene ...
Or it might have been because adapting a play to the big screen is even more difficult than a book; sometimes, what works on a stage with the actors live somehow becomes over the top and artificial when it's shot with the characteristic display of Hollywood affectations: the "acting duels", the screams and fuss to simulate emotions, the actresses who accept to look uglier in order to be nominated for the Oscar...
But it's a safe bet no one's family gatherings were as awful as the one depicted in the new film August: Osage County.The movie is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tracy Letts (who plays Sen. Lockhart on Showtime's Homeland), and it tells the story of the Weston clan, who come together after their alcoholic patriarch (played by Sam Shepard) commits suicide.
We understand that Violet, Meryl Streep in another (what-did-you-expect) virtuoso performance, let bitterness grow in the heart of her three daughters, each one proving that there can be more than one worst-case scenario.By the way, it's interesting that many dysfunctional families feature daughters.
No rewards to her good intentions except low self-esteem and bad luck (for reasons I won't spoil) that lead her heart to her first cousin (Benedict Cumberbatch).And in this drama whose witty and punchy dialogs are fueled by alcohol and unhealthy rainbows of pills, pain-killers and anti-depressants, each scene manages to be both entertaining and true to life, painting the live portrait of a family collapse, whose warning signs were the slow disintegration of its founding marriage.
Basically "August Osage County" is to Family what "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" is to couple, and the film is driven by fantastic performances, all carrying their level of pathos with talent and authenticity mostly from women, but men have their words to say.Chris Cooper is the husband of Violet's sister Mattie Fae (Margo Martindale), a lighter version of the infamous Hillary Swank's redneck mother in "Million Dollar Baby", lacking compassion and empathy toward her only son.
Ironically, the only positive female figure is Johnna (Misty Upham), the Native maid hired by Violet's husband, Beverly (Sam Shepard) a once-renowned poet, a decent guy too.With these characters brought all together after Beverly's disappearance, you have all the ingredients assembled for these great family brawls, with their share of secrets, revelations and twisted plot twists, and you have the local Oklahoman touch, making the film a mix between "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (it was adapted from a play by Tracy Letts) and "About Schmidt".
It's greatly written, full of authentic moments such as the dinner scene, Cooper's graces and many mother-and-daughters truth-telling moments  it's an ensemble movie and I guess this is the role Julia Roberts should have won an Oscar for, not Erin 'gimme-a-break' Brockovich.And while I saw the film, I thought I already had the title of my review in mind, something like "one's end inspiring many new beginnings", something about the necessity of reuniting to finally come to terms with the past and take a new start.
I know "hope" is a big word but it's precisely because the movie didn't leave much for optimism in the beginning than I kept having in mind this "it can't be worse" feeling.I understand it was meant to be a realistic drama and in reality, many problems are left unresolved, if only because most people chose to escape or hide instead of facing their responsibilities, but maybe the reunion was a way to put an end to it, maybe there had been enough secrets in this family and it was time not just to let them out, but to make it worth it.
I will never see these characters again, so I wish we had a few glimpses of what would happen to them after.Besides, Tracy Letts meant the film as a tribute to his background, to show that Midwest isn't just populated by Rubes or Rednecks, like in the movies, I'm not sure the ending would reconcile a perplexed audience with the Midwest.
Based on a stage winning play this family drama involves the Weston family of Oklahoma and Violet Weston(the best in the business Meryl Streep)is a set in her ways high strong stubborn old woman getting ready to die of cancer she's in her final days and she's not gonna change her smoking and she's still somewhat of a bigot.
The trailer makes August: Osage County look like an uplifting family occasion, but it's a melancholic movie with open wounds on a tender spot.
But, adapting this to a Filipino film would work sans the drug problem.But this is a family drama, and worth the acting stunts pulled by Streep, Roberts, Lewis and Cumberbatch even the support would bag them an ensemble SAG all better than a remake or upgraded Steel Magnolias.
I went mainly to see the performances of some great actors whom I respect very much, but at the point where I wanted to yell at the screen and tell the characters to go home and let the movie end, I decided to leave myself.
It is Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts who gives a fine performance and heads the film on their shoulder.Overall, a disappointing film despite having a great star cast.
Terrible film, just terrible.I watched half of it, gave up but then because of my OCD and needing to complete things, I finished it the next day.Whoever wrote the script has obviously never heard anyone talk in real life before.There is far too much focus on Meryl Streep's character and she is given so much time to drone on and on about utter cr*p to ensure award nominations that none of the other characters are developed enough.
The ending was rubbish and people got irate over nothing or perhaps to ensure there would be enough scenes for the trailer and the movie poster.Every scene felt disconnected and I think the only good thing this film had going for it was Julia Roberts who is a total pro.
However, the movie itself was a statically filmed version of a wildly overpraised stage play - the supposed shocker elements have been done before to greater effect and with more aplomb, There were too many clichéd characters that even excellent attempts of bringing them to life by the likes of Ewan McGregor, Dermont Mulroney, Juliette Lewis and Abigail Breslin could not make them rise above clichés - and believe me, they tried.
Chris Cooper who starred in a much better movie with a far more interesting depiction and resolution of the most "shocking revelation" of August: Osage County is absolutely perfect as the brother- in-law who truly loved the deceased and who is sicked by the nastiness and pettiness of the female relatives - especially his wife's (Excellently played by Margo Martindale).
This negative focus on the pure dysfunction that festers and spreads throughout the family roots much like a disease that damages the potential of fruitful growth is the deep focus in playwright Tracy Letts' play August: Osage County, which comes to the big screen through the literal and figurative sophomoric direction of John Wells (The Company Men).
It wasn't a happy ending either.This was more of a training film for therapists to show the sorts of a mess people can make of their lives.It also shows how keeping family secrets will usually do more harm than good.As far as I could tell, not one member of the family was well adjusted.I'm trying to think of something I liked about the movie, but nothing comes to mind..
There is a line in Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize winning play he has transformed into a screenplay for AUGUST, OSAGE COUNTY that states 'Thank God we can't tell the future, we could never get out of bed.' And in many ways that is the mood of this grim examination of a dysfunctional family living in the plains of Oklahoma, in this case baked by the August heat and the suicide death of the patriarch.
Violet's family gathers including youngest daughter Ivy (Julianne Nicholson), middle daughter Karen (Juliette Lewis) with her new fiancé, the wealthy cannabis loving Steve (Dermot Mulrooney), eldest daughter Barbara (Julia Roberts) with her estranged husband Bill (Ewan McGregor) and their teenage daughter Jean (Abigail Breslin), and her fat sister Mattie Fae (Margo Martindale) with her husband Charlie (Chris Cooper) and son Little Charlie (Benedict Cumberbatch).
The cast is really what brings it all together, there is not a poor performance in the bunch, the likes of Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor and Margo Martindale are all very believable as a close, dysfunctional family.
Ultimately, however, almost all films based on plays have the great strength of strong dialogue (there are some wonderful lines here) but the real weakness of a static location (in this case, a large house and most especially a crowded dinner table that provides an electric set of encounters).It is an ensemble piece of distinguished actors, but the male Letts has written the best roles for women: the family matriarch Violet (Meryl Streep), her three daughters (Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson & Juliette Lewis), and her sister (Margo Martindale).
August: Osage County If your elderly parent is turning into a pill-popper replace their daily dosage with Skittles.Unfortunately, the addict in this dark-comedy is cognizant.When their father (Sam Shepard) goes missing, the daughters (Julia Roberts, Juliette Lewis, Julianne Nicholson) of the cancerous Violet (Meryl Streep) return home with their significant others (Ewan McGregor, Abigail Breslin, Dermot Mulroney) for support.Eventually, their father's body is found and family secrets - a love child between him and Violet's sister (Margo Martindale) and an incestuous affair between the youngest daughter and a cousin (Benedict Cumberbatch) - are exposed.But instead of concealing these nuggets like her broken marriage, Violet's eldest daughter confronts her mother, physically.Boasting an epic ensemble, this adaptation of the play is certainly well performed.
It's not right that we should wait so long, but what a treat when films like this arrive.Adapted by Tracy Letts from her own stage play and directed by John Wells (The Company Men), August: Osage County throws a family of strong women at us with all their wrinkles, faults, foibles and tantrums, accompanied by the men who support them, manage them, tolerate them and, in most instances, love them.When Violet Weston's (Meryl Streep), husband, Beverly (Sam Shepard) disappears, her sister, Mattie (Margo Martindale), and daughters Barbara (Julia Roberts), Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) and Karen (Juliette Lewis) arrive at the Oklahoma family home to give support, offer unwelcome opinions and inflict damage in their own ways.
Based off of Tracy Letts' darkly comedic play, August: Osage County comes to the big screen in hopes of capturing audiences hearts with its strongly character-driven story and big names.
Julia Roberts almost matches her in the overacting stakes.The film is billed as a black comedy/drama, an adaptation of a stage play and directed by John Wells who wrote and directed many episodes of ER.The ensemble cast also includes Sam Shepard, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Juliette Lewis and Benedict CumberbatchSteep plays a bitter, sick, cancer ridden, drug addict whose drunk, poet husband hires a native American to cook and look after his wife and shortly later dies.The rest of the family arrives and what follows are brutal arguments where ghosts of the past are brought out in the open and wounds are opened up and laid to fester.However despite this the film is dull, overacted and certainly not funny.
The performances from Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, Julianne Nicholson, Dermot Mulroney, Abigail Breslin, and Benedict Cumberbatch all hit the dramatic notes expressed from the thickly scripted characters, but the anchored supporting actor is Julia Roberts.
This movie had everything in it,starting with great performances by all, especially, the two queens of acting, Meryl Streep, and Julia Roberts.
They introduce each character at 'convenient' spots in the film and give the viewer time before jumping into their tragic back stories.As you know, the cast is star studded, plenty of familiar faces from Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Julianne Nicholson and more.