Review- August: Osage County

August: Osage County, a black-comedy drama, was released earlier this week to largely positive reviews. It is a faithful adaption of the popular and successful stage production of the same name, with original playwright Tracy Letts also writing the new screenplay. To label this film a comedy is slightly misleading, however, as there are perhaps only three points in the film that will cause any laughter; this film is a two-hour family argument with some quite unsettling incestuous references thrown in for good measure.

The film boasts an impressive cast and the acting throughout is mainly strong. Meryl Streep is predictably brilliant and moving as the drug-addicted matriarch of the family, pushing away her loved ones while simultaneously lamenting the distance- both emotional and geographical- between them. Julia Roberts is equally impressive, something shown by both of their Oscar nominations announced earlier this year. The thing is, it won’t be surprising if neither of them win. This may sound harsh, but it’s true: the film’s biggest disappointment is that it is not as good as it could be. The whole way through you are left wondering when a scene will come along that will blow the audience away and make up for the slow pace. But it never does. It gets close at the lengthy dinner scene that has almost every character in the film reveal one or two of their secrets and, shockingly, ends up with the entire cast shouting at one another. Something just feels missing; maybe it’s the script, maybe the awkward acting (Benedict Cumberbatch and Juliette Lewis, I’m looking at you) or perhaps it’s the directing, but this film never lives up to its potential and so it isn’t really surprising that August: Osage County missed out on the Best Picture nomination despite being such obvious award bait.

It isn’t bad, though. In fact it’s genuinely good, but it isn’t going to be remembered in fifteen years time. The reason this film feels so incomplete may be because it raises so many serious issues but then doesn’t really resolve any of them or go into enough depth to give them merit. For example one character, played by Abigail Breslin, is a fourteen year old whose parents are going through a divorce. The only time the film focuses on her, however, is when it is pointed out that she smokes marijuana. While this is probably because the filmmakers wanted to spend more time focusing on the more interesting subplots, it just gives the feelings that the film doesn’t care about the people it’s showing apart from Roberts and Streep.

The film is definitely worth a watch and you’ll probably enjoy it- especially if you’re a fan of Meryl Streep’s more serious roles- but don’t expect brilliance.

Images courtesy of theatermania.com