There is absolutely no doubt about it at this stage, Meryl Streep is the greatest living actress if not one of the greatest actresses ever. It seems that the star just has to make an appearance in a film for about five minutes and there will be Oscar talk about it. Despite the fact that August: Osage County had very little hype here around its release, Streep still managed to pull in a nomination, and a very worthy one at that.
August really seemed to come out of nowhere in more than ways than one, mainly with the fact that John Wells was the director behind the project. If you happened to miss it, Wells was responsible for one of the more touching interpretations on the recession, The Company Men. Focusing on various different figures from the same company which goes under, Wells managed to give us the real human story behind the recession, something that has transferred across to August also. His talent is obviously for character pieces and August certainly contains enough dramatic content to make most actors and actresses faint at its script.
The notion of working with Meryl Street? Well, that’s a whole other level.
Based on a play by Tracey Letts, August tells the story of a dysfunctional matriarch Violet whose husband disappears during her battle with cancer, mainly due to her treatment of him. Due to the disappearance of their father, her daughters return home, cynical Barbara (Julia Roberts), innocent Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) and wayward Karen (Juliette Lewis). However, with her daughters comes all the trials and tribulations from the rest of the extended family, a very dysfunctional family.
When they collectively receive the worst news they could imagine, the family must face up to their past, present and in some cases, their future and the influence their mother holds over them. Barbara is dealing with a painful separation, Karen with a pending wedding and Ivy with a new controversial love interest. Then comes the Uncle and Aunt with their son, Charles. Yes, you are correct, this can only end in tears.
What works about August is most certainly the cast. Meryl Streep is, of course, in absolutely flying form, relishing every word Violet utters, banging the table with zest, revelling in every insult she lets fly at her daughters. There isn’t really a bad turn here to be honest, Julia Roberts will literally blow you away, an entirely different Roberts from the All-American heroine of Pretty Woman, Chris Cooper is fantastic as their peaceful uncle and Julie Christie and Dermot Mulrooney are far better than you would expect either of them to be. However, Benedict Cumberbatch is woefully miscast, an actor who is most recognised as the highly intelligent Sherlock is not believable as the “loser” of the family. His performance is almost comical.
In terms of how the film works, it really isn’t any surprise that this story began as a play. Most of the important scenes are set in one room and take an incredibly long period of time, especially the dinner scene which takes place in the last third of the film. Every performance is constantly over-acted, giving the production a dramatic feel that almost makes you believe you are in the theatre.
Even though a lot of the plot is unbelievable in parts to the point where you will actually be thankful that your family is so normal in comparison, August is still very enjoyable in parts but Streep makes it.
