A look at the lives of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Oklahoma house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.
It’s hysterical and hard to watch, but grimly compelling nonetheless.
This is a laboriously unpleasant picture about self-delusion and inherited bitterness.
It takes a while to get going and never outstrips its theatrical origins but gets by on great actors working through meaty scenes. See it for Streep vs. Roberts alone.
Based on the play by Tracy Letts it’s claustrophobic, tiresome and dispiriting.
Even the barest of stage-bound productions would bring more palpable claustrophobia and conviction than John Wells’ flat direction, which serves to hinder the translation of what’s likely a much more cohesive, less overall numbing dramatic work in its original incarnation.
Sweaty family saga.
Stellar performances, not least from Streep and Roberts, distract from less-than-imaginative filmmaking.
This classy adap of a much-garlanded stage play will appeal to discerning audiences who can tolerate unpleasant characters with potty mouths if they're played by Oscar winners.
It’s little more than a histrionic piece of Oscar bait, an overly prescriptive melodrama in which a bunch of showboating movie stars get to overact in the company of Meryl Streep.
The drama itself is an unwieldy mix of Chekhovian elements and Dallas-style melodrama.
Everyone has their own terrible grievance; everyone gets a big moment: it just looks like an entire soap season condensed into a self-consciously upscale feature, and often the dialogue has an entropic tendency towards shouting.
With such fireworks from the cast, it's a shame Wells's direction is so dowdy, allowing the action to proceed from one theatrical setpiece to the next with little sense of cinematic cohesion.
Tracy Letts: 'August: Osage County has always only ended one way'
General release. Check local listings for show times.