REVIEW: AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
Sadly this is the last of the Oscar-nominated reviews. As has been said in many a year end best of list, 2013 was a magnificent year for movies. And, luckily for me, I closed on a very solid selection, John Wells' adaptation of Tracy Letts' August: Osage County.
Wells impressed me with another ensemble comedy I watched a year or so back on cable, The Company Men. There he balanced family drama, work politics and the collective, impressive trio of Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Affleck. In August he grapples with a much larger cast, to the tune of about 10 or so. The original August was three and a half hours long, but the aforementioned Letts adapted his story for the big screen, and it clocks in around the two hour mark. Apparently there was about another hour of footage shot, but for the sake of not repeating a Wolf of Wall Street-esque time duration, it was cut.
It's almost a shame it was. I really could watch an additional two hours of this insane family soap opera. August could have worked well as an HBO miniseries perhaps. Like DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort, Meryl Streep is at her finest here when she spews obscenity at other people, her incredibly complex and remarkably flawed family tree. Like Nebraska, August offers up some authentic portrayals of small-town folks, the type of people I've grown up with in my short life thus far. Roberts is determined, fierce and anchors the family as Barb, Streep's Violet's eldest daughter. Among the ensemble, Margo Martindale, Wells' returning Chris Cooper and Benedict Cumberbatch all shine in their roles, though there isn't a single weak player in this dynamic chess match of a film. There might be characters that grated my nerves, but I'll give the film the BOTD and say it was an intentional decision.
So I've covered my bases, now for the film's centerpiece. Streep. Meryl-Triple Oscars-Streep. It's become redundant and now cliched to call out a Streep performance for excellence. She is ferocious, a beast of a woman who treats her daughters only a little better than her mother treated her: poorly. Streeps' accent is unfailing, her movements that of a lion seeking out, stalking its prey before pouncing. It is a serious accomplishment, and I'll be rooting for her come March 2. But this, like McConaughey's Ron Woodroof, is a performance requiring a new standard of achievement in acting
Unfortunately the film does have flaws, dipping sometimes into that silly soap opera territory it treads at times. As I said, instead of the two hour constrictions, I would've loved to watch it as a scathing miniseries, where we could truly in depth delve into these strange, flawed yet ordinary folks. But come for Roberts toppling over Streep in that pivotal scene you've seen on the poster, stay for an acting master class.
Rating: 3/4 stars
Wells impressed me with another ensemble comedy I watched a year or so back on cable, The Company Men. There he balanced family drama, work politics and the collective, impressive trio of Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Affleck. In August he grapples with a much larger cast, to the tune of about 10 or so. The original August was three and a half hours long, but the aforementioned Letts adapted his story for the big screen, and it clocks in around the two hour mark. Apparently there was about another hour of footage shot, but for the sake of not repeating a Wolf of Wall Street-esque time duration, it was cut.
It's almost a shame it was. I really could watch an additional two hours of this insane family soap opera. August could have worked well as an HBO miniseries perhaps. Like DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort, Meryl Streep is at her finest here when she spews obscenity at other people, her incredibly complex and remarkably flawed family tree. Like Nebraska, August offers up some authentic portrayals of small-town folks, the type of people I've grown up with in my short life thus far. Roberts is determined, fierce and anchors the family as Barb, Streep's Violet's eldest daughter. Among the ensemble, Margo Martindale, Wells' returning Chris Cooper and Benedict Cumberbatch all shine in their roles, though there isn't a single weak player in this dynamic chess match of a film. There might be characters that grated my nerves, but I'll give the film the BOTD and say it was an intentional decision.
So I've covered my bases, now for the film's centerpiece. Streep. Meryl-Triple Oscars-Streep. It's become redundant and now cliched to call out a Streep performance for excellence. She is ferocious, a beast of a woman who treats her daughters only a little better than her mother treated her: poorly. Streeps' accent is unfailing, her movements that of a lion seeking out, stalking its prey before pouncing. It is a serious accomplishment, and I'll be rooting for her come March 2. But this, like McConaughey's Ron Woodroof, is a performance requiring a new standard of achievement in actingUnfortunately the film does have flaws, dipping sometimes into that silly soap opera territory it treads at times. As I said, instead of the two hour constrictions, I would've loved to watch it as a scathing miniseries, where we could truly in depth delve into these strange, flawed yet ordinary folks. But come for Roberts toppling over Streep in that pivotal scene you've seen on the poster, stay for an acting master class.
Rating: 3/4 stars
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