August Osage County Film Review
August: Osage County follows three sisters, Barbara (Julia Roberts), Karen (Juliette Lewis), and Ivy (Julianne Nicholson), their significant others, and their extended family who all return to their childhood home to comfort the girls’ downer reliant mother Violet (Meryl Streep) after the mysterious disappearance of their father Beverly (Sam Shepard).
The movie is based on a play of the same name written by Tracy Letts, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for drama with August: Osage County, whose movie adaption is up for scrutiny here. While also being the writer of the film’s base material, he would also pen the movie’s screenplay. Letts himself is no amateur when it comes to adapting his works to film, having written the scripts for Bug and Killer Joe’s film versions, too.
Letts’ play is a phenomenal read on the power of guilt and the devastating effects it can have when unresolved and taken out on others be it, family, like in the play, odd. The character’s awful behavior when it comes to dealing with one another creates an uncomfortable feeling of familiarity with the Weston’s familial dysfunction. Violet’s remark in Act 3 highlight her venomous tongue when she attempts to deflect blame onto Barbara for Beverly’s disappearance saying, “You had better understand this, you smug little ingrate, there is at least one reason Beverly … and that’s you. Think there’s any way he would’ve done what he did if you were still here?” The film adheres to the themes of weaponized guilt and family dysfunction in an amazing fashion, but that adherence comes with some cut and added scenes.
One of the main reasons the film works so well in capturing Letts’ original intentions is the immaculate performances by the entire cast, from Meryl Streep as the aggravatingly conceited Violet to the vile, predatory Steve (Dermot Mulroney). While such emotional turmoil could really only be left to the most vivid of imaginations, anyone, regardless of that, can see what Letts wanted: raw and heart-wrenching grief, frustration, and emotional destruction. Something the cast brings to the movie, without stepping into parody or unrealistic territory. This is completely provided by a cast who gave their all in their roles.
Letts also leans into the medium by giving more screen time to minor characters in the play, whose emotional moments are relegated to other locations away from the main house, or are given more time than in the play. An example of this is Little Charles, who slept through his alarm (Benedict Cumberbatch) being picked up by his father Charlie (Chris Cooper) In the play, Little Charles’s moment of guilt over being late takes place in the car outside their home. He apologizes to his father again and again. The father calms him down, telling him to “stop apologizing” and eventually giving his son the advice to “stand up straight. Look folks in the eye. And stop being so hard on yourself”. While the scene itself plays out almost identically in the film, it takes place at a bus stop and includes only Little Charles and his father. No one else is even close to them. It’s just Little Charles and his father, no other family members are around and it’s only between them. The influences and opinions of the others are distant and don’t matter. Another scene that is given its own moment is the one where Little Charles meets his mother, Mattie Fae (Margo Martindale) after arriving with his father and the toxic relationship between them. The same goes for the scene between Charlie and Mattie Fae in regards to her treatment of their son, which is an argument that leads to Charlie chewing out his wife and stomping out of the house to calm down. Both of these scenes are present in the play, but hearing the derision on Mattie Fae’s voice, the hurt on Little Charles’ face, and the resentful and sorrowful tone Charlie has when talking to his wife, make these scenes that may have been weaker in the play stronger.
While Letts successfully translates the themes of weaponized guilt and familial dysfunction to the screen in a more than enjoyable movie, his lack of fiddling with his own material works only to take away from the movie itself. Overall, the film adaption is faithful, on account of the original playwright being responsible for the script, but those who have read the play will find an almost direct translation.
