August: Osage County

This movie impressed me so much that i waited for its re-telecast on TV and watched it again.  With a powerful ensemble cast – it impressed me no end.

Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts have given power packed performances.  The others have also given a equally stellar performance.  The casting is truly a casting coup.

That apart – the story and the screenplay is superbly stellar.  The story makes the male characters appear so gentle, loving and considerate while the female characters are full of hate, anger and angst …………….while still managing to pull at the heartstrings of sympathy from the audience.

The family revolves around the matriach Violet (Meryl Streep) whose toxicity and cruelty to everyone in her family : makes you wonder how her husband Beverly put up with her all these years.  You have the lives of her three daughters who are forced to return when they learn of the death of their father.  And then you have Violet’s sister – Mattie Fae (Margot Martindale) and her family.  The whole story revolves around the death(suicide) of the patriach Beverly (Sam Shephard) and how the whole family falls apart after that.  It makes you feel that it was Beverly who was holding the family together all this while.

I don’t want to get into the details of the plot.  But this movie made me write this blog post – as there are some family’s that are so toxic and its best to stay away from these.  If you are unfortunate to be part of such a family: then its best to run away to survive.  This original script was made as a drama story and won the Pulitzer and Tony awards.

There are elements of tenderness in the movie where Little Charles and Ivy show love to each other and have dreams for themselves.  But when old family secrets come tumbling out of the closet – then things fall apart.

Somewhere the audience learns that Ivy had a hysterectomy – which means that she can never have children.  This makes the audience wonder – why cant they love each other, get married and have a life : even though they are half-brother half-sister (since we any way know that Ivy can’t conceive).

The scene where we see Violet and her daughter Barbara fight with each other – is piece-de-resistance scene of the movie

Somewhere in the middle of the movie you see the character Violet try to justify where she gets her barbarity from.  But her drug abuse makes Violet violent to everyone around her.  You see Barbara have a huge soft corner for her dead father and trying to stand up to her mother : to prevent the family falling apart.  She tries to take on the responsibility of the eldest child in the family on her own shoulders.  But on the way – she realizes that she has herself become so much like Violet.

The two forces of wanting to have a life of your own with a happy and supporting family on the one hand and the need to get away from a toxic family that could destroy your life comes through so clearly here.