Un été à Osage County

Greetings again from the darkness. Tracy Letts had a very nice year in 2008. He won the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony for writing the play August: Osage County. Since then, he has also written the play and screenplay for Killer Joe, and been seen as an actor in the key role of a Senator in the TV show "Homeland". This time out, he adapts his own play for director John Wells' (The Company Men, TV's "ER") screen version of August: Osage County.

With an ensemble cast matched by very few movies over the years, the screen version begins with what may be its best scene. Weston family patriarch and published poet Beverly (the always great Sam Shepard) is interviewing Johnna for a position as cook and housekeeper when they are interrupted in stunning fashion by Violet (Meryl Streep), Beverly's acid-tongued wife who is showing the effects of chemotherapy and her prescription drug addiction. This extraordinary pre-credits scene sets the stage for the entire movie, which unfortunately only approaches this high standard a couple more times.

Despite the film's flaws, there is no denying the "train-wreck" effect of not being able to look away from this most dysfunctional family. Most of this is due to the screen presence of a steady stream of talented actors: in addition to Streep and Shephard, we get their 3 daughters played by Julia Roberts (Barbara), Julianne Nicholson (Ivy) and Juliette Lewis (Karen); Ewan McGregor and Abigail Breslin as Roberts' husband and daughter; Margo Martindale (Violet's sister), her husband Chris Cooper (Charles) and their son Benedict Cumberbatch.

As with most dysfunctional family movies, there is a dinner table scene ... this one occurring after a funeral. The resentment and regret and anger on display over casseroles is staggering, especially the incisive and "truth-telling" Violet comments and the defensive replies from Barbara. As time goes on, family secrets and stories unfold culminating in a whopper near the end. This is really the polar opposite of a family support system.

Meryl Streep's performance is one of the most demonstrative of her career. Some may call it over the top, but I believe it's essential to the tone of the movie and the family interactions. Her exchanges with Julia Roberts define the monster mother and daughter in her image theme. They don't nitpick each other, it's more like inflicting gaping wounds. Surprisingly, Roberts mostly holds her own ... though that could be that the film borders on campy much of the time. Streep's scene comes as she recalls the most horrific childhood Christmas story you could ever want to hear.

It must be noted that Margo Martindale is the real highlight here. She has two extraordinary scenes ... each very different in style and substance ... and she nails them both. Without her character and talent, this film could have spun off into a major mess. The same could be said for Chris Cooper, who is really the moral center of the family. While the others seem intent on hiding from their past, he seems to make the best of his situation.

The film never really captures the conflicting environments of the old Weston homestead and the wide open plains of Oklahoma. The exception is a pretty cool post-funeral scene in a hayfield where Roberts tells Streep "There's no place to go". The main difference between the film version and stage version is the compressed time and the decision to include all explosive scenes. There is just little breathing room here. Still, it's one of the more entertaining and wild dysfunctional comedy-dramas that you will see on screen, and it's quite obvious this group of fine actors thoroughly enjoyed the ensemble experience.

I actually enjoyed this movie version better than the way over-praised stage play it is based on. Saw the play at the National Theatre with most of the original New York cast and found it obvious and sit-com my. Oddly the film which by the way has lost all the laughs the play engendered, presents a much more serious and grim portrait. Meryl the magnificent is not so magnificent in this though she at times grasps the inner feeling of the mother. Unfortunately, she also tends to go way over the top a few too many times. Julia Roberts has been directed in a more angry and vindictive manner than the original Tony winning actress I saw on stage. I always love Julia but this is not her most pleasant role. The humor has been left on the stage and not made its way to the screen. At least the film avoids the glib, "oh, look at me, I am so clever" feeling of the play.

Though nearly 40 minutes of Tracy Lett's Pulitzer Prize winning dramedy have been shaved for the screen version, "August: Osage County" still manages to deliver on the towering play's hearty laughs, gasp inducing shocks, and well earned tears.

While it is hardly the best adaptation of a play to a film, as much of the film still retains it's indoor, staging setting, it is boosted by some sterling performances of actors at the top of their craft. Chris Cooper and Margo Martindale are stellar, playing off each other with deft and precise timing. Julia Roberts has not had this good of a role in... ever, and she mostly delivers. Julianne Nicholson is both quiet yet fiercely determined as middle daughter Ivy. Sam Sheppard is amazing in the even more truncated role of the Weston family patriarch who goes missing, and Misty Upham is so good with so little to say as the young Indian woman, Johnna, tossed into a family in turmoil.

Of course the turmoil is led by the Medea-of-the-Midwest, Violet, played for every ounce by Meryl Streep in one of her most indelible performances ever. While viewers will surely be talking about the "infamous" post funeral dinner scene, the price of admission should be had for Streep's monologue late into the "second act," where she sits with her daughters on a swing set and discusses the worst Christmas ever: an acting class with the full gamut of emotion.

Viewers may be equally divided by spending 130 minutes with such unhappy people, but there are plenty of dark laughs in Letts' screenplay to alleviate the tension. And with actors these good interpreting the parts, "August: Osage County" is easier to swallow than some awkward family dinners we've all had to attend at some point in our lives.

Granted, I wouldn't last five minutes with this bunch. But having grown up with people not unlike this, I found the parrying and thrusting to be quite real. These characters are all inflicted with the same disease; they need love and drill for it, but they are incapable of letting go of their submerged self-hatred and continue to bring each other down. If you can get past that, you can sit and watch the disaster happen and appreciate some really intense performances. Black comedy is not "funny" the way that farce or physical comedy are. Black comedy draws its strength from seeing our lives as absurd and unfulfilled and still going on. Sartre thought that we all had had a terrible joke pulled on us. If we live in this septic tank, bless us. If we can rise above it, bless us too. The dialogue is real, the awful failure to express love and respect is well presented, painful as it may be. While this was not a pleasant experience, I could not take my eyes off the principles. I think about this movie all the time which means it must have got to me.

It amazes me how you can watch a movie in one period of life, then rewatch it in a fifferent period of life and catch new things. This movie does that, which makes it timeless. I must say, big Sam Shephard fan, so obviously I'm going to like it a little. NOT a Meryl Streep fan but she killed it in this movie.. Julia Roberts, just WOW. I'm not sure if she was nominated but she should have won an Oscar for that performance. It requires an understanding of that kind of life in order to appreciate the movie. Don't listen to critics that have never left the city. They know nothing about the pain this movie seeks to explain.