August: Osage County, currently playing at The Charles Theater, starts with all the the family tension and suspense of The Glass Menagerie and ends with all the subtlety and originality of a Jerry Springer episode.
This is partly because the movie is adapted from a Pulitzer-Prize winning play (as was the sub-par adaptation of The Glass Menagerie) by playwright Tracy Letts. Letts was inspired by the dysfunctional-family plays of Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill.
Dysfunctional family indeed.
August follows three days, three sisters and three generations of the Weston family that have come to mourn the death of the beloved family patriarch. Unfortunately, the dead man seems to be the only person the family members have much love for.
The film digs into themes of secrets and of acceptance and then continues digging once it has long since already reached the bottom of the bedrock. If a character is seen on screen from the Weston family, she will have a secret, and it will less than subtly be revealed all over the dinner table. Nothing in this movie is left unsaid, and everyone has something to say to everyone. Even the moments of humor (which do a good job of leaving audiences laughing while feeling guilty and cruel at the same time) are born out of anger and resentment. It is as if these family members have not had one single conversation with each other in decades. However, during this one gathering, everyone simultaneously decides to say everything. Everywhere throughout the movie, secrets and lies can be inserted, organically or inorganically.
Ultimately, each character, as resentful as they are to one another, desperately seeks approval and acceptance; each character faces the decision to settle (including for child predators, incestuous relationships and loveless relationships) or to run away.
While the acting is on a constant high from nearly all members of an all-star cast (Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep give one of their best performances), the formulaic and limited direction and storyboarding may cause one to check out emotionally multiple times during the film.
There is a scene where Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) drives desperately in any direction that leads far away from the dysfunctional home down a dirt road. A cloud of dust rises into the air into a perfect size ball that covers the car from view, and then she is gone. Symbolically, it looks like the most cliche shot in movie history; technically it looks like the shot was edited in Microsoft Paint.
What the movie lacks in originality, it is relentless in its exploration of a dysfunctional family that may not live up to similar film adaptations such as The Death of a Salesman or A Streetcar named Desire. Nevertheless, it is still worth a view for the high level and quality of energy and acting.
