If there remains ANY doubt that Meryl Streep is America’s finest working actress, then here is even more proof…
The movie is called AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. It’s dark and not easy to watch. It’s also deeply touching and proves once an for all that “misery can love family.”
Adapted from Tracy Lett’s Pulitzer Prize winning play—a play that also won five Tony Awards including Best Play—AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY sets out on an often verklemmpt journey of the strong-willed women of the Weston family.
Their lives have diverged through the years until a family crisis brings them back to the Oklahoma house they grew up in—and the woman who raised them.
I don’t want to give too much of the storyline away here. Suffice it to say that things often get mighty uncomfortable through the film’s two hour running time.
To call this family dysfunctional is an ueber-understatement.
We’re talking infidelity, child abuse, suicide, addiction and incest here. What happens around the dinner table alone is worth the price of admission.
What makes this often bleak film shine are the terrific performances by a superb supporting ensemble including Julia Roberts, Sam Shepard, Ewan McGregor, Juliette Lewis, Julianne Nicholson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Abigail Breslin and Kansas City export Chris Cooper.
Television commercials would have you believe that this is a roaring comedy. It’s not.
OK, so it has some dark laughs, but there’s so much more. Think R-rated Dramedy. And some of what goes down here is hard to swallow.
So be prepared!
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY opens as a limited seven theater engagment this weekend throughout Kansas City.
I’m giving this stage-to-screen transformation a B Grade
(Reviewed at Glenwood Arts Theatre)
JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Friday mornings at 6:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on NewsRadio KMBZ FM & AM. And anytime on Time-Warner Cable LOCAL ON DEMAND, CH 411.
Man, the commercials for this are absolutely horrible. For some reason they are trying to market it as a comedy!
It’s basically a stage play and I agree that the way it’s being marketed could be a turnoff to the average moviegoer’s expectations.
local dude has a producer credit on this one