Movie #858 "August Osage County" was another one of those films this year ---- I can appreciate its artistry, but not enjoyable to watch. I didn't feel the same way to the play --- the play was very funny. Somehow something went wrong here. When Dave and I talked about it, it was hard to put our fingers on the culprit --- Tracy Letts is the screenwriter, he's the one who originally won the Pulitzer for the script, so what gives? You've got almost everyone at their top game here, trying to get across these characters, esp. someone Dave and I both admire tremendously, Meryl Streep, who, we know, can be raunchy AND pleasant, and poignant, and funny, and the list goes on. Julia Roberts didn't seem to ruin it --- it is HER movie, but she also comes to the table with all the talent. Well, then we found on you tube an illegal taping of the dinner scene with Jeff Perry, Amy Morton, Rondi Reed, and all the other Steppenwolf people we hooted and laughed at in the show, and the lines are the same --- so what was different. Well, the timing for one........it went faster. But the other observation is that the lead (Deanna Dunnagan, who went on to win a tony ) took on her family and her hubby with zest! She almost had a twinkle in her eye with the mean things she was saying --- and she sat at that dinner table like she was about ready to play a ping pong game --- ready to meet the challenges her kids brought up. That's not how Ms. Streep plays it --- that's not to say it's wrong; it's just different. So this is more like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" where people verbally cut each other down for two hours --- once again, not so much fun to watch. Whereas the play was able to do a little of both, so it had a more powerful punch to me! Dave likens it to "Driving Miss Daisy" -- we don't like her through a lot of the movie because of the mean things she says, but you can tell she has that twinkle in her eye that there's more to her --- and her driver knows it, too, so he just plays with her. Their conversations come across ever so much more interesting. So, bottom line, we think it was the director. And then when we looked at the credits, by golly, you have a very new director --- he has tons of credentials for producer, but not director. If you haven't seen the play, you might not agree with me, but then I would be remiss if I didn't warn you that once again, this is NOT an enjoyable movie to watch. It's a pill-popping mother who tears into her kids just waiting for one of them to break, so she can pick at the pieces. Not a good time to me.
August: Osage County2013R I would rank this 3.9 stars out of 5.
When their father disappears, three strong-willed women return to their childhood home and to their equally strong-willed mother. As they search for their patriarch, the dysfunctional family members wind up facing difficult truths about themselves.
- Cast:
- Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, Margo Martindale, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard, Misty Upham
- Genre:
- Drama
