August: Osage County
Genre: Drama
Main Players: Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, Dermot Mulroney, Abigail Breslin, Juliette Lewis, Julianne Nicholson, Benedict Cumberbatch (Basically a lot of well known actors and a few others thrown in.)
General Gist: A slightly estranged and dysfunctional family comes together after a crisis.
Deb's Take:
I am a relationship junkie. I people watch, get encapsulated by interactions and connections and get sucked into movies that dive into relationships. This movie was that kind of movie. To say this family was dysfunctional is an understatement. With an alcoholic father, a drug addicted mother and a past of craziness how could they not be? I will say though,this movie will not be a movie for everyone. When I really think about, this movie didn't really have a point. The message I got from it was, you live life, you fall into your place in life,you try to change it, and eventually you come home and see nothing has changed at all. Sort of depressing. Here was the kicker for me though...I love watching good actors put on good performances and become real people. So, I got sucked in big time. I felt like I was a fly on the wall in a home of discourse and disarray. I was able to just sit back and analyze and ponder and watch. Therefore, I loved it!
Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts outdid themselves in this over the top melodramatic movie. Really, there wasn't one actor that didn't impress me. The characters had to work to match each other in this one, and they all did quite well. I love when laughing can happen in the mist of chaos. Pretty much every soap opera moment you can think of death, divorce, stealing, incest, mystery...everything in one 2 hour package. Again, that doesn't mean there really was a point to the movie. Sure, I found some good life lessons thrown in, but really I felt like the movie was just a snapshot of a family and their coping, or lack of, mechanisms. I am sure the original screen play was written with deeper meanings and intents, there were plenty, but all in all the movie was just one big mash up of dysfunctional relationships. I really did enjoy it...I have a feeling that I may be one of the few...
Deb's Rate: Friday Night
Tiff's Take:
Ugh. I had practically my whole review typed out earlier today. I came back tonight to finish it up and there was only one sentence down. "This movie was intense." Apparently two people can't update a post at the same time. One person will end up with nothing. That person was me. I'm not sure I have it in me to do it all again. However, my "This movie was intense" does wrap it up nicely.
To save myself the pain of rehashing what I already wrote, I'm going to defer to Deb's review for the details. There was a lot of crazy, dysfunction going on in this movie. With Deb loving the relationship aspect, it was just too much for me. Everyone was mean (mostly) and hopeless. There was nothing happy about this movie. And forget about closure in any way. This movie did not leave you feeling good about any part of any character.
However, it wasn't a complete loss. The acting was superb which was to be expected and the movie itself was really well done. So, I can see why there are Oscar nominations for this one. But, even though I usually like movies that are a little off the beaten path, this one was just more than I could handle.
Tiff's Rate: Friday Night for the acting, Rent It for entertainment purposes so I go with Matinee overall.
Preview: Not sure what we'll see next week. Any ideas?
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