Jmunney's Blog

Meryl Streep’s three daughters in August: Osage County are played by Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson, and Juliette Lewis.  That is to say, I thought these three ladies were convincing as sisters.  Meryl and Julia have gotten the majority of the press out of all the actors, what with the Oscar nominations and being two of the most famous working American actresses.  They were fine, certainly.  The whole cast was perfectly decent, no question.  Meryl is Meryl, but this was far from her best performance.  But it was Nicholson – perhaps the least-known of the cast – who was the one who really worked for me as youngest daughter Ivy.  With this film and her role on the Showtime series Masters of Sex, she is having a bit of a moment.  With just about everyone else going loud and/or hysterical, she was able to play her part with a fascinating self-assuredness.  I would also like to call out Chris Cooper, who makes one of those speeches that really show off a character’s integrity, and it is the sort of thing that always gets me.

This movie kind of felt like it should have ended about halfway through, around the end of Sam Shepard’s funeral.  There certainly was time for the story to continue, but it didn’t feel like there was a whole lot of purpose to what remained.  Plus, the tone wasn’t exactly remaining consistent.  Also, its roots as a play were all too present.  At the end, Meryl is walking around her house, talking to nobody in particular, and it looks like the sort of thing you would see on a stage.  August: Osage County is competent, but it doesn’t have panache in all the right places. B-