So last week I saw the movie August:Osage County, a film adaptation of a play by the same name by Tracy Letts, which opened in 2007. My friend and I went primarily because Benedict Cumberbatch was listed in it, but the rest of the cast also drew me in.
I was very surprised by this movie, because I went in knowing nothing about it, and the trailers did not know what to do with the movie. Every trailer I saw, in the theater or on tv, just used one scene with the majority of the cast all smiling and laughing around a dinner table with some lines from Meryl Streep and highlighted that certain actors were in it. Judging from the looks of that dinner scene and Streep's dialogue I thought it might be a play, and lo and behold, the credit "Based on the play by Tracy Letts" came up within about 2-3 minutes of the start, if I remember correct.
August:Osage County was...interesting. All the info I could find on the play and the movie say it's a Dark Comedy, which generally means there is humor in dark or depressing subjects. While I admit there were humorous points within the film, enough to garner a chuckle now and then, it overall felt bleak and depressing. You watch a family disintegrate in three acts. By the end of this movie I just felt sad.
The basic plot of the movie is that the head of the Weston family, played by Sam Shepard, goes missing. So his drug addled and cancer ridden wife played by Meryl Streep calls her sister and three estranged daughters for support. They all convene on the old family home and have to deal with the high dysfunction between each member of the family.
In the end, I didn't feel like August:Osage County was a good movie. I thought it was a great play in movie form. As a movie, I don't think it worked as well as it could have, with an ending I could tell from a mile away was added because the kind of closure needed in a play is not the same as a movie. I thought every actor did a great job, no matter how big or small the part was. Meryl Streep did some of the best work I've ever seen her do, and that's saying something. I was definitely colored by my expectations for the movie however. All the trailers I saw just showed the introductions of characters and them laughing and smiling around the dinner table. I thought it was going to be some sort of comedy. But if you go into this movie thinking it's going to be a barrel of laughs you're mistaken. In fact, the majority of that dinner table scene they use so prominently in the trailer is Meryl Streep's drug addled character systematically delivering cruel insults or opinions to everyone at the table. The most laughs my friend and I had actually came from one character's music choice in his douchey car as he would speed past people. I'm pretty sure I'll actually never watch the film again, though I do think it was good. It's just not something I'd revisit. Though if I had a chance to see the play I'd go and see it, but as a movie I think it's worth seeing once.
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