Meryl Streep seems only to set foot on a movie set to get an Oscar nomination. So, it is no surprise that her showy Oscar bait-y performance in August: Osage County has given her a record 18th acting nomination. She plays Violet Weston, an Oklahoma matriarch who has her extended family descend upon her after the death of her husband. Set over a few days before and after the funeral, the film drips with underlying family tensions as much as the mourners drip with sweat in the intense heat.
Streep dominates and I haven’t seen so much acting in one performance since Joaquin Phoenix in The Master. Way over the top and totally lacking in realism, her florid style seems to infect some of the other performers such as Julia Roberts and (inevitably) Juliette Lewis playing two of her daughters, Barbara and Karen. Even Benedict Cumberbatch seems caught up, giving the weakest performance in his career. Maybe those misjudgements are caused by the film struggling to shake off its stage origins, where the over dramatic performances would have worked better.
Being based on a Tracy Letts play (see the much better Killer Joe) there are obviously some great lines and affecting scenes, such as when Violet’s sister Mattie Fae (Margo Martindale) is chided by her husband (Chris Cooper) for mistreating their son. But, overall, this is fairly typical stuff for a slice of southern gothic drama – the overwhelming heat, the desolate plains, the long held resentments and suppressed animosities have been seen before so many times. Even the big reveal towards the end seems a tad clichéd.
Ultimately, this type of film lives and dies by its performances, and thankfully there are some lower key ones that shine through. As well as Cooper and Martindale, Abigail Breslin again impresses in a small role in a similar way as she did in New Year’s Day and most of all, Julianne Nicholson, who is outstanding as the third daughter, Ivy. She is so much more controlled and believable that her more illustrious co-stars.
Rating: 5 out of 10