I segreti di Osage County

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's Osage County, Oklahoma. Violet Weston (Meryl Streep) has quite a mouth and the mouth cancer to go with it. She's crass, addicted to painkillers, and the bitter matriarch of the dysfunctional family. Her youngest daughter Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) is still close by dutifully helping out but easily dismissed by Violet. Her sister Mattie Fae Aiken (Margo Martindale) keeps sticking around with her husband Charlie (Chris Cooper). Favorite oldest daughter Barbara (Julia Roberts) has returned with her separated husband Bill Fordham (Ewan McGregor) and daughter Jean (Abigail Breslin). Violet's husband Beverly (Sam Shepard) has enough of the her difficulties and walks off. He is found drowned and the family gathers for the funeral. The middle daughter Karen (Juliette Lewis) returns with new fiancé Steve Huberbrecht (Dermot Mulroney). Little Charles Aiken (Benedict Cumberbatch) is the loser son of Mattie Fae and Charlie who overslept for the funeral.

There are a lot of great actors doing Oscar caliber work. The best thing director John Wells does is to point the camera and let these actors work. Meryl Streep is the master, and there is no way to describe her work with justice. Julia Roberts kept up with her and that is high praise for any actor. Every person in the cast deliver some of their best work. Writer Tracy Letts' play is all the same tone. That is the movie's biggest drawback. It is all vile and all bitterness. It is the same tone over and over again. It is overkill without any letup. I just enjoyed it for the performances.

"August: Osage County" was adapted by its own playwright Terry Letts into a screenplay. I have not seen the play yet, but am looking forward to seeing one in a few months from now. The standard set by the ensemble of actors in this film will be so hard to top.

This play is set in an Oklahoma town on one warm summer. Violet Wetson (Meryl Streep) reunites with her three willful daughters, Barbara (Julia Roberts), Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) and Karen (Juliette Lewis) when there was a death in the family. Fireworks fly when family secrets are revealed as mother and daughters clash.

Meryl Streep is again in top form here as a dysfunctional wife and mother made worse by her dependency on drugs given for her cancer. This role has Oscar written all over it, and Ms. Streep again grabs this bull by the horns. She is one scary virago here, one you would not want to meet in real life. To even imagine someone like her to be your mother is unthinkable.

Julia Roberts plays the eldest daughter Barbara with restraint until that post-funeral lunch when her top blows up and all hell breaks loose. We see a mature and gritty Julia here, going full circle from her first Oscar nomination with another family-oriented play turned film "Steel Magnolias." Ewan McGregor plays her husband Bill who loves her but can't stand her. Abigail Breslin plays her 14-year old daughter Jean, who is trying to grow up faster than she should.

Juliette Lewis plays another quirky and flighty character here. It seems only these types of roles fit her unusually unique face. Her Karen brings home a much-older fiancé Steve (Dermot Mulroney) with fast sports car and stash of pot.

Julianne Nicholson plays the daughter who stayed home to take care of her parents, Ivy. It seems she has been around for a long time, but this is the first film that I have taken notice of her. Her character has secret dreams and desires that could not take off because she is trapped in her situation in life, and Nicholson portrays that pain and frustration very well.

We will also meet Violet's fussy and nosy sister Mattie Fay, played by Margo Martindale. Her husband Charles is played by Chris Cooper, who is quietly dignified through most the film, until he had his own confrontation scene with his wife. Their son shy and insecure "Little" Charles is sensitively played by Benjamin Cumberbatch. This 2013 has really been a big debut year for Cumberbatch with diverse roles in big films like "Star Trek In Darkness", "12 Years a Slave", now this one.

This may not be for all because of the depressing family squabbling going on for two hours. However, I thought the dialogues were really darkly witty in their bitterness and spite. The main reason to watch this film though would be the masterclass in ensemble acting. Seeing all these actors interact together enhancing each other's performances is the big positive in watching a film like this.

I've never seen the play on which this film is based so in a way it was good to come to this film really knowing nothing more than "people are saying this is good so maybe I should go see it". The plot sees a deeply dysfunctional family of strong-willed and vitriolic women coming back together in the wake of a family tragedy. Resentment, past hurts, bitterness and vitriol are the underlying themes as the family sits around the dinner table. I shan't say too much more than that – not because the plot is best left unknown (although it is) but more because there really isn't too much more actual plot to worry about and instead the film is more about the characters and a study of the family.

In some ways this is a bad thing and it does make the film feel long and rather lacking in a narrative drive. I can understand why many have found it dull and low on direction and focus but for me personally I thought that the strength brought about by this approach was just about enough to overcome the weaknesses inherent in it. That strength is simply in the way that it takes a very talented group of actresses, puts them together and gives them some really strong scenes to get their teeth into. Additionally, and I don't mean to be rude, but this group is of an age which Hollywood casting agents generally starts forgetting exists due to their age. As a result of this the film almost always engages in the moment or in any specific scene as we see instantly recognizable characters lash out at each other, playing out old patterns of hurt in a way that we are able to recognize them as "old patterns" even though we as viewers are here for the first time. So as a collection of scenes, the film is almost always working well – it is just when it has to come together that it doesn't do quite as well.

Despite this it is great to watch the cast go at it. Streep is great as usual and is utterly convincing as someone so engrained in patterns of behavior and carrying so much pain in her that it has affected everything – OK the cancer and the "eating pain" stuff may make it a bit too obvious, but even still she is good at what she has to do. Roberts is not quite on that level here but is still very strong while Nicholson and Lewis do well with big supporting characters. Martindale may not be as big a name (or role) but those that watch Justified already know she has presence and she holds her own here really well. The male cast are very much second fiddle but there are still good turns throughout from Cooper, Shepard, Cumberbatch, Mulroney and McGregor. The risk is that the cast feels too heavy with stars, but they are all so convincing that once they had been on screen for a little, I was more focused on the character than the career.

August Osage County is one of many films getting hyped up around the awards period and as with many films it is not as perfectly brilliant as you'll be told it is. The narrative does move but the film always seems happiest when it is just sitting and letting the family be themselves and as a result it does move slowly and perhaps the story lacks real impact. However, just as the film is happy, so are the cast and the strong individual scenes give plenty for the cast to work with, and they return the favor with a really strong ensemble feel that is engaging and convincingly laced with hurt and anger – and it is this that makes the film strong and worth a look.

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.