Chris in NY
I can just picture the faces of the actors as they envisioned receiving what must have seemed like inevitable Oscars for their performances in this movie. I wonder if they could picture the faces of their audience subjected to what became nothing more than an unforgivable assault on their senses. On no level are the characters in Osage County worthy of the time or money it cost to see this film. I've enjoyed many a dark movie as well as great performances by the actors in Osage County and yet I was actually angry with myself for suffering through this nonsense to the bitter end. This is THE movie that taught me to protect myself by walking out of a theater when a movie spews misery without justification.
lavatch
"August: Osage County" may be the most brutally pessimistic play/film since Gorki's "The Lower Depths" in the nineteenth century. But in this case, the depressing experience is not focused on the fated action of the lower class in Russia, but rather the neurosis of the American family.While Eugene O'Neill addressed the results of repression and family secrets in his masterpiece "Long Day's Journey Into Night, playwright and screenwriter Tracy Letts appears to have an even bleaker vision of family dysfunction. While the film's focal point may be the mother-daughter relationship of Violet Weston (Meryl Streep) and her daughter Barbara (Julia Roberts), every character in the extended family is afflicted is enmeshed in the same destructive family system. The characters collide, bouncing off each other like billiard balls.At times, the depth of cruelty stretches credibility. This is especially apparent in Streep's character Violet. Many of her thoughtless and biting attacks on her her daughters went beyond belief. Similarly, the cruelty of Violet sister Mattie Fae (Margo Martindale) towards her son "Little Charles" (Benedict Cumberbatch) seemed to come out of nowhere when she confronted him at the piano.The depiction of the family train wreck is nonetheless compelling and provides a lesson in sensitizing ourselves to each other. The characters in this film never seemed grateful to have a family. Perhaps viewers can walk away from the experience with a new outlook on loved ones. After all, it can't get much worse than the month of August in Osage County.
zombiewhitegirl-15099
I've seen this movie about a dozen times, and I've tried for a long time to articulate just what bothers me about it. What I LIKE about it is easy: awkward family scenes are enjoyable to me for some reason. The acting was incredible, as you'd expect from anything Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. I even like that it examines situational ethics, such as:Would it be excusable to cheat if your wife is a cold, raging b*tch? What about committing suicide to get away from the obligation of taking care of your cantankerous, drug addicted wife? Should first cousins be acceptable as a couple if one or both are sterile?How young is "too young" for a man to begin a sexual relationship with a young woman?However, I feel the writers took it too far at times, almost excusing away the character's behavior through dialogue. For example, there's a reason that the dope-smoking daughter is 14- going-on-30; her age is supposed to conflict with her looks and maturity, making us second guess whether we think it was really WRONG of Karen's fiancée to hit on her, especially if she was willing. Karen went into a pathetic rant right before she left with Steve about Jean (the 14 year old) being partially responsible, and how it's a grey area. It's not.Violet belligerently attacked almost everyone at the funeral dinner and when Barb protested, she told her she knew nothing about REAL attacks, citing her terrible childhood. No one really shut her down here and she went on quite a long tirade which always feels to me like the writer was expressing their OWN views here, and I'm sorry, but no matter how rotten your childhood was, it doesn't give you an excuse to treat others like crap. Yet another moment where it felt like they tried to ask the audience, "Is it okay to behave badly IF...?" Later, it's revealed that Aunt Mattie Fey had an affair with Beverly, resulting in a Little Charles. She goes into this self- righteous dialogue about how she's "more than just your fat Aunt Mattie Fae...there's more to me than that." That, I assume, was supposed to imply that because the situation is more complicated than it may appear, that makes it somehow excusable. Finally, if you weren't uncomfortable enough by the romantic relationship between first cousins, the writer pushes it a step further to test your tolerance: the first cousins are actually half- siblings.The whole movie felt like one ethics test after another, which is fine, except that the writer also inserted their own answers to the tests through their characters, and I completely disagree with ALL of their conclusions.
