August Osage County

I have watched the play which stars Lillete Dubey, Ira Dubey, Sandhya Mridul, Kitu Gidwani, Suchitra Pillai and Meeta Vashisht in 2011 at Epicentre, Gurgaon. The play is written by Tracy Letts and so is the script. I decided to watch the movie... specially since it stars Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. One thing about me... I will happily watch a play, movie and read a book of the same. It may get boring for others but I like to see how each of them turn out.


This is not a movie that is light hearted... it is very heavy on the brain... in a good way. The reason I am saying this is because I would not dream of taking my hubby along for this one. It is about women... for the women... and played by the women. There is no comedy in the movie. It is mainly drama.

Violet (Meryl Streep)  is old and sick... she is suffering from mouth cancer but is a chain smoker. She is also a drug addict. In the opening scene, her alcoholic, award winning husband Weston (Sam Shepard) hires a nurse cum cook Johnna (Misty Upham) for his wife. He disappears after that. Violet calls her sister and daughters. Her sister Mattie (Margo Matindale) and husband Charles (Chris Cooper) arrive soon. The daughters Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) lives nearby while Barbara (Julia Roberts) arrives from far with her husband Bill (Ewan McGregor) and 14 year old daughter Jean (Abigail Breslin). They receive the news that Weston drowned and funeral arrangements are made. The 3rd daughter Karen (Juliette Lewis) arrives with her latest boyfriend Steve (Dermot Mulrenoy). Mattie's son 'Little Charles' (Benedict Cumberbatch) arrives late since he overslept.
So, the entire family is together in one house... at a tragic moment. What happens next is... what generally happens in any family. Emotions run high and all the secrets come spilling come... entangling everyone in the mess.
Barbara and her husband have separated because he slept with a much younger woman but they come together to attend the funeral to show a united front. Violet figures it out soon enough.
Their daughter takes pot and is a rebellious teenager. Steve flirts with her after giving her marijuana. Johnna sees this and hits him with a shovel. Karen and Steve leave after this incident. Yes, Karen leaves with him because... I don't know why... but she seems desperate to be with a man... any rich man... even a creep like Steve.
Bill takes Jean and leaves.... Barbara is left alone and her marriage is finally over.
Ivy and 'Little Charles' are having an affair secretly. They plan to move to New York and leave the family behind. There is a horrible twist to this which I will not reveal.
In the end, Violet is left alone with Johnna... and it seems like her husband knew she would be left alone and so hired Johnna.

I loved the movie... the play was superb too but the movie is better... mainly because of the actors... Meryl and Julia are superb. So are the other actors but these two slightly over shadow everyone else. Plus, they have much stronger characters.

Meryl is superb... In the play, Lillete is quite good too... almost as good as Meryl.
I would recommend you watch this flick... but it is not comedy or romance or action. It is just drama.