AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY Film Reviews — Page 3

I saw the film at a screening today. Really enjoyed it. I am very familiar with the play and if you know the play, you will be in very familiar territory. It has much of the tone it had on stage and never feels dumbed down or like a TV show or like a Julia Roberts movie.

Too many thoughts but I'll just spew a few...

**SPOILERS**

- Violet wears a wig. Interesting, given the comments from people after set photos and the trailer surfaced where people said she looked like she was wearing a wig. Her entrance into in Bev's office is perhaps unsettling, her staggering in with that thinning short-cropped white hair. She only appears once more without the wig (save a quick bit at the end) when she tells the girls the story of Raymond Qualls. It is Meryl's most vulnerable and heartbreaking moment in the film -- I imagine one of the clips they could play before her Oscar nomination. She is wonderful in the film. Funny, hard, vulnerable, and terrifying.
- Julia Roberts is a fine Barbara. Never once does she hide behind her "Julia Roberts movie" persona. Still trying to articulate exactly what I thought, but I did enjoy her. I will always remember Amy Morton in the role, but she is great.
- Pleasantly surprised by Ewan McGregor as Bill who I thought would be too attractive to play the role. He is a dorky and an aloof Bill.
- Margo Martindale is a hoot as Mattie Fae and her scenes with Chris Cooper as Charlie are wonderful. He in particular, in a very subtle and toned down performance, stole my heart in this film. The scene where he picks Little Charles up from the bus station is full of worlds of subtext and is just heartbreaking, perhaps only to those who know the real dynamics of the relationship at this point in the story.
- The Dion story is cut, more or less. We see the Sherrif come to the house to tell the bad news, and Barbara tells Jean the prom story in the back seat of the car on their way to identify the body. That's the extent. I can see why this whole story was dropped for the screen, though I'm curious if any of the scenes were shot or investigated in the screenplay.
- The Steve and Jean scenes are done very well and much more simply without dumbing anything down. Jean isn't as present in this as in the play (her whole scene in the attic with Johanna is out) but you still get the impression both Barbara and Bill are not there as fully as they should and how this affects her.
-The dinner scene is shot masterfully, virtually in its entirety. I just read a previous comment and was genuinely surprised at it being thought "confusing". The close ups are particularly effective. Barbara keeps glancing at Violet in the beginning as she's starting to go off, perhaps suspecting the drugs. Kudos to Ms. Roberts for her subtlety (when it's called for) in the scene. And indeed, she goes for Violet and it's scary and primal.
- I thought the changes or re-arrangements of scenes were done very well and were justified. Bev is found sooner than in the play (they have an open casket) for example.
**MILD SPOILER** - The ending/tag to the film I may need to see again to fully understand or know if I liked it. Barbara is driving away from the house. After a while pulls over, gets out, and tries to collect herself. After a while she does and while tearful, smiles to herself, gets in, and keeps on driving. Is she once and for all guilt free/no longer responsible for Violet? Is she ready for her next horizon? Will be curious what others think.

- The film is great! I think negative buzz at this point is just natural for something that started small and found a large audience. It is well done and john Wells is NOT out of his league. I don't know his TV career, nor do I care, since it never seemed to appear on screen.
- I will be curious how audiences will react in wide release. The gala opening yesterday and at the 11 am screening today was PACKED to rafters and several times the audience howled loudly (much like they did in New York) and gasped and winced and burst into applause several times. TIFF is an exciting and charmed experience and it will be interesting to see how "average joe" audiences react in theatres.

- It will be going to the Oscars, no question. There isn't a weak link in the cast and nomination-wise, it could go several ways. Expect nominations for Streep, Roberts, Martindale, Cooper, Letts, and Wells.

"And yes, I understand how the film festivals work. I just think it's a mistake to have a movie reviewed by all major media this far in advance of its general release."

Not really! Most producers want reviews....it builds the good word of mouth (if any) to build praise for the film...so people would want to see it...if it gets good word of mouth now people are more likely to go see it come Christmas Day and even start talking OSCAR Buzz!

Welcometothetheater, as a very frequent poster and occasional writer for Gold Derby, I can tell you that it is one of the most reliable, reputable sources for Oscars and Emmys there is. The article you posted was an accurate report at the time, but since the film debuted at Toronto, category placement has changed, and Gold Derby has the follow-up article:

http://www.goldderby.com/news/4766/meryl-streep-august-osage-county-entertainment-news-386149257.html

Very positive from Variety, commending the two lead performances and adding an interesting note about Wells' more traditional approach to the material:

play for the screen) has created one of the great, showstopping female roles in recent American theater — his Mother Courage, Mama Rose and Mary Tyrone, all rolled into one — and Streep plays it to the hilt, in and out of a black fright wig (to hide the character’s chemo-stricken hair) and oversized sunglasses, cursing like a longshoreman and whittling everyone down to size. Nothing slips by her, she says repeatedly. You’d better believe it. It’s a “big” performance, but it’s just what the part calls for, since Vi is something of an actress herself, craving the attention that comes with turning a solemn family gathering into an occasion for high theater. This may be Beverly’s funeral, but it’s Vi’s chance to shine.

Shine she does, especially during the long funeral dinner at the end of act two that is, as it was onstage, Letts’ piece de resistance. Streep is electrifying to watch here, goosing, prodding, meting out punishment and laying family secrets bare, surprisingly gentle one moment, demonic the next. And Roberts, who hasn’t had a big, meaty part like this in years, possesses just the right hardened beauty to play an aging woman let down by life, terrified at the thought of becoming her mother.

Wells, who is best known for having produced such small-screen phenoms as “ER” and “The West Wing,” does an impressive job shooting and cutting among 10 major characters, all of whom get their chance to engage Vi in verbal tango. He isn’t a natural film director per se (his lone previous feature, 2010’s “The Company Men,” was the earnest, corporate-downsizing also-ran to “Up in the Air”), but he understands what “August” needs in order to work onscreen, how to preserve its inherent claustrophobia without rendering it completely stagebound, and the result is far more successful than any more stylized “cinematic” treatment probably would have been. (Overall, Wells’ work here recalls the American Film Theater series of stage-to-screen adaptations from the 1970s, of which John Frankenheimer’s “The Iceman Cometh” was the major highlight.)
Variety.com

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Interesting review from Time magazine's Richard Corliss. Did he love or hate Meryl? It's hard to tell.

"A Spinal Tap song turned up to 11 isn’t as noisy as Meryl Streep‘s first appearance in August: Osage County. Appearing onscreen in director John Wells’ faithful film of Tracy Letts’ acclaimed play, the actress’s performance and affect all but shout, “Watch me! Note my new tics (so cunning) and accent (spot-on)! Examine the coiffure and makeup I chose this time!...”

"...She is not Vi; she is Meryl Streep doing another of her fabulous impressions. Her Julia Child in Julie & Julia and her Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady were acute parodies that found some emotional grounding in those famous personalities. If PBS had its own refined version of Saturday Night Live, Streep could be a permanent guest host. But when she turns her considerable talents to fictional roles, like the mother in Mamma Mia! or the nun in Doubt, or here with Vi, she tends to go way too big, diverting the audience’s focus from the character to the performer."


Time.com

Marquis de SadeSteppenwolf

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Updated On: 9/13/13 at 11:13 AM