Watching Dysfunction in Someone Else's Family

            Meryl Streep is a brilliant actress.  How does she reach into herself and pull out the main character in August: Osage County?  Meryl Streep brings to life a wretched and brutal woman at the head of a dysfunctional family, including Julia Roberts who gives a deeply emotional performance, herself. The language  in the movie sets ears on fire and the secrets that vomit onto the scenes are shocking.   

           When I saw the ad for August: Osage County starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, Sam Shepard and Dermott Mc... with a headline “Wickedly Funny” I was thinking “adult comedy.”  My friends, this movie is funny as a funeral is funny when a family member rises to dance to music no one else hears.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen a movie as un-funny as this one.  Nevertheless, I laughed – primarily in shock at the revelations, the situations, and the vile, though fitting, language.

              August: Osage County won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play also won a Tony.  Originally a stage play and then a screen play, the author, Tracy Letts was totally involved, but John Wells is the director.  George Clooney is one of the producers.  The movie is powerful, as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Death of a Salesman are powerful dark dramas adapted for the big screen.

                August: Osage County is an adult comedy, a film about family for adults who have lived long enough to understand how families become completely dysfunctional, and are grateful their families are not as screwed up as the one on the screen.  It’s  brutal, it’s darkly funny, and I’d see it again.  The Broadway play must have been a powerful experience to witness; after three hours, a patron would be emotionally exhausted. 
               
                  I remain mesmerized by Meryl Streep’s enormous talent.