As an avid moviegoer and theatergoer, I obviously understand that the two mediums are very different despite their narrative similarities. The Pulitzer Prize-winning and multi-Tony and Drama Desk awards winning play August: Osage County by Tracy Letts is a dark family drama that from the moment it was first performed in 2007 was destined to sit aside masterpieces of the genre like The Glass Menagerie and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Naturally a film adaptation was in the cards the moment it became a sensation (many Pulitzer Prize winning plays have become acclaimed films), and as usual the biggest concern is whether or not the film version can capture the spirit of the stage play despite its usually truncated runtime. However, Letts’ adaptation of his own play for director John Wells‘ film is doubtlessly one of the best films of the year and worthy of sitting beside its stage counterpart.
August: Osage County opens on elderly poet Beverly Weston (Sam Shepard), who is decades removed from writing any poetry worth a damn, interviewing a young Native American woman named Johanna (Misty Upham) for a job as a live-in cook and caregiver for his wife Violet (Meryl Streep). Violet not only has mouth cancer, but she has been over-prescribed pain medication and has become a nasty drug addict. One could say she’s rough around the edges, but all of her personality is jagged, sharp edges as she lashes out to hurt the people around her for no discernible reason except she is great physical pain and wants everyone around her to suffer pain also (naturally, Streep conveys this entire personality type within minutes of her first appearance on screen). Shortly after hiring Johanna, Beverly disappears, leading to the family’s three daughters — Barbara (Julia Roberts), Ivy (Julianne Nicholson), and Karen (Juliette Lewis) and Violet’s sister Mattie Fae (Margo Martindale), her husband Charles (Chris Cooper) and their son “Little” Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch) — returning home to confront the patriarch’s disappearance and the matriarch’s addictions. Adding to the chaotic mix is Barbara’s estranged husband Bill (Ewan McGregor) and their daughter Jean (Abigail Breslin) and Karen’s sleazy fiance Steve (Dermot Mulroney). This is far from a happy family reunion, as old wounds long ignored are brought to the light as Beverly’s fate and Violet’s addictions open the floodgates of emotional turmoil that Violet and her various family members long held in check.
As I state in my title, this is an actor’s movie, which means that director John Wells is smart enough to compose the film of mainly long takes to allow the actors to do what they do best. Wells has been producing film and television for decades, but didn’t direct his first film until 2010’s The Company Men (it’s probably fair to say that Wells’ role as executive producer/showrunner of ER established a strong creative connection with George Clooney, who produced August: Osage County). If that list of talent in my previous paragraph didn’t already intrigue you to see the film, let me assure you that many of them turn in their best performances in years. Even old acting masters like Streep (if she didn’t already have a wheelbarrow full of Oscars she could probably have counted on another for this) and recently recognized marvels like Cumberbatch offer portrayals that are different from anything else they’ve done recently. The characters and their actors are so in sync that within moments of them first appearing on screen their personalities are clearly defined, with a few exceptions that are held back for narrative reasons. That’s a credit to both the screenwriter and the actors.
Letts is remarkably adept at adapting his own work for the screening, being one of the few playwrights who understands what works on the stage doesn’t often translate perfectly to the screen. Both of his previous screenplay adaptations of his plays — 2006’s Bug and 2012’s Killer Joe — are excellent (in particular, Killer Joe was in my top 10 of 2012), as is this adaptation that trims very little emotionally from the original narrative despite shortening its runtime by about an hour. However, this is an adaptation of a stage play, so audiences going into it should be aware that most of the movie’s drama is based on Letts’ wonderful dialogue — not a bad thing by any means, but it’s a heavily dialogue-driven narrative. Of course, in the case of a wonderful writer like Letts words often speak far louder than action, particularly in a tremendous dinner scene dominated by an obviously high Violet that features belly laughs, emotional jousting, and explosions of hurtful dialogue.
No spoilers, but the only aspect of August: Osage County that I strongly disliked was the tacked-on “hopeful” ending. According to The Los Angeles Times, this very short sequence was added by producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein against the wishes of Wells and Letts after audiences reacted poorly to the play’s original ending on screen. I’d be interested in hearing other people’s thoughts on this change, because while it doesn’t alter the play in a narrative sense it certainly alters the tone. I also think the film’s poster suggests to audiences that it is a wacky family comedy, which it certainly isn’t.
But those criticisms are not leveled at the cast or filmmakers. What they have created is a film that will resonate with audiences, and while it doesn’t reach the peaks of the original play — indeed, the material is much better suited for the stage — it comes just about as close as possible. That makes it a film worth seeing.
Rating: A remarkably strong adaptation full of award-worthy performances of one of the best plays of the last decade (8/10).
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