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Barbara Weston: Marriage is hard.

Karen Weston: That's one thing about mom and dad. You gotta tip your hat to anybody

who can stay married that long.

Ivy Weston: Karen, he killed himself.

Jean Fordham: [to Barbara] Mom, you're such a liar. No, stop, you are.

Violet Weston: You know if I ever call my mom a liar she would knock my goddamn head

off my shoulders.

Violet Weston: I thought we were having a funeral dinner not a cockfight.

Barbara Weston: Are we breaking shit now, uh? I can break shit! Hey! See, everybody can

break some shit!

Violet Weston: You can't do this! This is my house! This is my house!

Barbara Weston: You don't get it, do you? You don't get it! I AM running things now!

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.

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (2013) FILM REVIEW & OSCAR PREVIEW– 2-10-2014 2-10-2014 - Written By: David L. $Money Train$ Watts – Journalist/Film Reviewer

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I have to say upfront that I have not seen the stage version of “August: Osage County”,

which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama before I freely say I was not a big fan of

the film adaptation of August: Osage County. To me I was too aware that this was

play that was being filmed and not a movie based on a play. I felt that almost 70% of the

film was dominated by the funeral dinner and some other house scenes the next day.

August had an all-star A-level cast of female actors, such as Meryl Streep playing the

drugged out and outspoken matriarch Violet Weston; her sister Mattie Fae Aiken played

smartly Margo Martindale, who is one of my favorite actresses on FX’s The Americans;

Julia Roberts is a terse and somber Barbara Weston; Barbara’s independent daughter

Jean Fordham is Zombieland’s Abigail Breslin; Juliette Lewis is Julia’s scatter-brain

sexpot sister Karen Weston and the last Weston sister Ivy Weston (Julianne Nicholson)

is somber, nerdy and introspective. This was an extremely impressive female cast, but I

never truly felt any real deep bond with the Weston sisters or between Violet and Mattie.

The male cast members are equally impressive with Ewan McGregor as Barbara’s

estranged husband Bill Fordham, Benedict Cumberbatch of BBC’s Sherlock Holmes

played Little Charles Aiken. What a true waste of both Ewan and Bendedict because

they have immense talents as actors and are never fully utilized in their very restrictive

roles. Benedict does his best playing Bill as quirky, withdrawn and indecisive. Benedict

was hardly given any meaningful scenes with Julianne to make one truly believe they

were really in love. It is already a stretch for many people to willingly ignore the many

social taboos and shame of falling in love with their first cousin. So, I expected to see

more or learn more about Ivy and Bill’s illicit relationship. Their romantic feelings were

never fully explained. Sam Shepard plays Beverly Watson and I thought that--since this

is a film and not a play—then August’s director John Wells would at least show some

flashbacks of Beverly with Violet and his daughters to get a better sense how important

he was to them. And I never got whether we the audiences were supposed to just guess

if Beverly committed suicide or just had a boating accident. And I felt it was way too

easy and predictable for Karen’s overtly flashy, vapid and hustler/entrepreneur fiancée

Steven Huberchedt (Dermot Mulroney) to go from playfully flirting with Jean to later

hitting on her as they smoke pot. Wells let you know this scene was coming because

Steven is too overly aggressive with a teenage girl he just met about smoking weed.

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And the final lead male character is Chris Cooper as Charlie Aiken, who was likeable as

the main peacemaker. Charlie was the most fair and honest characters in the film. But I

felt Charlie was in a reactionary mode to the dominant female leads like Julia and Meryl

like most of the males in the film. This may have been intentional because I did not see

the “August: Osage County” play. I again wish Wells had given us some quick flashback

scenes with Sam Shepard giving his insight to these male characters throughout his life.

Oscar nominations for Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep were guaranteed once they first

showed up on the set of August: Osage County. As veteran screen legends any type

of serious drama is going to get enhanced immediately by their mere presence in any

film. But I have to say that I was not blown away by either Julia or Meryl and I seriously

doubt they will win an Oscar for Best Actress over Amy Adams in American Hustle or

Sandra Bullock in Gravity. I also think for me there was way too much in the film to deal

with in rapid order to give an Oscar to Julia or Meryl. We barely get to know Beverly and

Violet before Beverly goes missing. As soon as the Watson family instantly arrives, then

Beverly’s body is found. We then have a funeral that for some silly reason had none of

Beverly’s family members. Why? There was not any scenes at all of the Southwest

tradition of neighbors or family friends stopping by the Watson house to express their

condolences. In a play you do not have lots of bit parts or extras. But a film should be

more and show more of what would really happen in a small Oklahoma town. Instead

we just jump right into the internal family struggle and the personal secrets each lead

family member is hiding-until an awkward moment forces each ugly truth to be revealed.

I probably should mention Johnna Monevata (Misty Upham) as the Native American

caregiver/cook. But other than giving rolling her eyes at Violet I thought Johnna had one

purpose in the film and that was to go bat crazy on Jean and Steven smoking pot. To

me August: Osage County is probably an excellent play, but the film felt more like a

two hour pilot of an HBO or Showtime dramatic series. I was half expecting when the

film ended and the credits started rolling that a small window would quickly open up and

say, “Next week on August: Osage County see Barbara and Violet take a road trip to

Brooklyn to visit Beverly Weston’s secret illegitimate daughter Charlotte, who would be

played by Marisa Tomei.” I just felt this was a film in dire search of a stage. I would have

to give August: Osage County $$$ mainly for the film’s all-star cast and not much else.

David L. $Money Train$ Watts • FuTurXTV • HHBMedia.com • info@hhbmedia.com • www.hhbmedia.com • David Velo Stewart