August: Oscar County

It seems that the Weinsteins have already started their Oscar Christmas list. ‘August: Osage County’ follows an Oklahoma family bearing the storm of their patriarch’s suicide as skeletons come tumbling out of the closet over a couple days at the ‘ole homestead. Barbara Weston (Julia Roberts) is The Black Sheep in a family chock full of them, who returns home dragging the cross of her own fallen marriage with separated scholar husband Bill (Ewan McGregor) and rebellious daughter Jean (Abigail Breslin). Her sister Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) is the One Who Stayed Behind With Mom and Dad, and completing the sibling tri-fecta is Karen (Juliette Lewis, who we’ve probably last seen in ‘Natural Born Killers’), toting her flavor of the month fiancé Steve (Dermot Mulroney). The Weston sisters have come together, or are trying to pretend to have come together, in support of their cancer-recovering mother Violet (Meryl Streep, who has literally a zero chance of being snubbed for at least Best Supporting Actress for every award possible). The crux of the story’s tension revolves around Sam Shepherd’s brief, but lingering, cameo as the father Beverly Weston. Rounding out the family is Violet’s sister Mattie (Margo Martindale) and husband Charles (Chris Cooper), who obviously have good chemistry together as an aging couple at odds because it’s fucking Margo Martindale and Chris Cooper playing an aging couple at odds. And to no surprise, Benedict Cumberbatch provides the freshest, probably miscast, performance as Charles and Mattie’s neurotic son Little Charles. He probably won’t make the award circuit cut, but his vulnerable turn in ‘Osage County’, along with Kahn, Smaug, the Wikileaks Guy, and whoever he amazingly portrays in the upcoming ’12 Years A Slave’, proves that in 2013 Benedict Cumberbatch played literally everyone. Playwright Tracy Letts, who adapted the script from his own stage play, most recently explored the dynamic of hateful southern families in 2012’s ultra-violent, genre-breaking ‘Killer Joe’, so it’s no surprise to see the post-mourning dinner table become a snarling, hair-grabbing warzone shout-match pitting daughters against mother and mother against everyone. But where Letts buried the theme of dysfunctional family under layers disguised as a crime thriller in ‘Joe’, he puts it square in his sights and unfortunately, all his cards on the table too early. The conflict is there, in spades, and so is the Weston’s shaky history, but most of it is spat out in furious dialogue and Letts doesn’t seem too comfortable with shaking off the script’s theatricality. It dresses itself up as a film, but with director John Wells insistence of letting the words and powerhouse cast do all of the work, ‘Osage’ never makes the full rebirth onto the screen. Sure, it’s shot on location, but the cinematography does very little besides keep the camera nice and steady for those actor’s monologues. As far as performances go, there are very few surprises here, although come December there’s no doubt the world will be cheering for Streep, whose drug-addicted and half out of her gourd Violet is not entirely transformative but everything casual film fans love to see. It’s a good performance, and it’s out of Streep’s comfort zone, but aside from a powerful scene of subtlety where Violet recounts a hurtful Christmas morning, she does little more than a strong imitation of addiction and dementia. Julia Roberts stands toe-to-toe with Streep, snapping back with her shouted arsenal of ‘Fucks’, and she’s locked into eyeing up the Oscar gold when spring 2014 rolls around as well. The only real surprise is who will get ‘Actress’ and who will get ‘Supporting’, seeing as how the protagonist meter only begins to tilt into Barbara’s court during the last twenty minutes of the film. To be fair, Roberts does polish her acting chops for this role, but sadly, like most of the cast, director Wells lets her most powerful scenes dissolve into matches of screaming rage. Both Roberts and Streep should’ve kept a tighter grip on the reins because those moments of quiet reflection after the shit-storms showcase their best. Chris Cooper is never bad, but in this case it’s because he does a really excellent job of playing Chris Cooper (although he does turn things up a notch with a monologue all his own). Ditto goes for Martindale and Juliette Lewis is fine as the sister who must always be engaged to somebody but her performance tells us little more than her scripted dialogue. Julianne Nicholson brings the strongest turn as Ivy, the sister who’s taboo relationship with her first cousin Little Charles (Cumberbatch) takes a dark turn in the third act due to a twist in family history. She’s the sister who never left, staying behind for mom and dad, and Nicholson feels the burden of that responsibility with quiet dignity. And the pain hits home true when Ivy learns a harsh Weston truth. Nicholson and Cumberbatch develop the best chemistry on screen as the most innocent members of the family, punished for daring to want something real and pure in a life plagued with secrets. It’s clear that Letts understands the concept of “With family like this, who needs enemies?” But in ‘August: Osage County’ he doesn’t take the time to root the conflict and back-story organically. Even in a piece entirely about characters, he uses small bursts of plot to keep things moving, such as Steve (Mulroney) hungering for 14-year old Jean (Breslin) and how the native American housekeeper Johnna (Misty Upham) resolves everything with frankly a very left-field approach. Director Wells understands that this movie is about his actors, more than their characters, and doesn’t bother getting in their way—or creating a voice of his own. And the Weinsteins understand how the awards season works. But the film has its merits and its cast never allows its 130 minute runtime to grow dull. It’s a film about family, and it takes a different approach than its December 25th release date would have you believe. Rating: 2 ½ out of 4