The Pulitzer Prize-winning 2008 play August: Osage County by Tracy Letts is interpreted into a film excellently, thanks to Lett’s personal adaptation and John Wells stunning cinematography. This magnificent screenplay representation of the original play maintains the drama, events and emotion while supporting the moods and atmosphere of the events that unfold through bold landscape cinematography, detailed set design and amazing acting. If you’ve read the play and enjoyed it, you will not be disappointed by the films characterization of the house and the heat, and the exemplary delivery of the dialogue.
The setting for this story is centered around a large, old country home in rural Oklahoma, with wheat fields covering the flat golden expanses surrounding it. The basic storyline surrounds the character of Violet, a sixty-five-year-old woman, who suffers from mouth cancer, both literally and figuratively. Violet is the chaotic flame that ignites the entire family into a huge boiling mess as they come to help take care of her after her husband’s tragic end. Her three daughters struggle to help Violet fight her drug addiction, and as things in the house begin to heat up, all the family secrets are unleashed, and it is open season for insults and arguments from our main characters. Julia Roberts delivers a powerful feeling of failure and resentment, Juliette Lewis aptly demonstrates her hopes of escape, and Meryl Streep sure delivers the twisted knife of gaslighting, disappointment and narcissism.
The film August: Osage County retains all the drama that is in the play, furthering the fist clenching chaos with the exciting visual scenes displayed in the movie. The acting is top notch, with powerful performances by a laundry list of award winning actors. You really can’t get much better than Meryl Streep, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Julia Roberts, Juliette Lewis and Chris Cooper. The tension, the cycles of abuse, the strong characters and the gut wrenching punch this story has carries powerfully in the film through the dramatic acting, the fast pace, and the powerful environment.
The acting and cinematography carry this adaptation, with a few segments missing. Most of the play’s vital scenes and events are preserved perfectly within the film, although there are some dropped scenes. In the play, there are more details about off scene characters that do not add a lot to the plot, although dialogue between Johnna and other main characters is something that I do miss in the film. Director John Wells chose to leave out a very interesting scene from the play in which Violet’s granddaughter Jean sits in the attic and has a discussion with Violet’s caretaker Johnna, a Cheyanne woman who is hired to do the chores that Violet cannot do on her own. This picture into who these two younger characters are, is interesting and explains a bit about major events that occur between the two later in the plot. The only other line I wish had remained, “ I don’t know what it says about me that I have a greater affinity with the damaged” (Letts Act1. Page 7) was a powerful line spoken by Beverly that relates to the whole story. That and the pun tossed out at the end of the first scene, “JOHNNA: What kind of cancer? BEVERLY: I didn’t say? My God, I nearly neglected the punch line: mouth cancer,” as if the real cancer killing everyone was the words that came out of her mouth.
What this film lacks in character back stories and some dialogue from the original play, it more than makes up for visually. Both the house and the harsh Oklahoma environment are powerful characters by themselves. The house, once the growing pride of an immigrant family, is now slowly decaying under neglect, much like the relationships in the story. In the beginning of the play, the scene is set to further bring our attention to this; “A tatty crystal-tiered chandelier hangs over the table and casts a gloomy yellow light.” The chandelier, something that was once grand, now derelict, sets the mood for the relationships that spin out, also once prideful, now divisive, abusive. While the play describes this slowly decaying house, and sets may be able to dim lights and spotlight objects like the chandelier, the filmmaker’s ability to fully feature these visual elements both inside and outside repeatedly, are a powerful sometimes more subliminal message about the decay of the family relationships, or the foreshadowing of events to come. As family secrets see the light of day, so does the house. The drapes are parted, the blinds are lifted, the light and the night invade. The character of the house suggests to us that secrets and arguments are about to get hotter, just like the Oklahoma heat.
If the lack of house maintenance suggests giving up on the relationships inside, the dry blowing wind, and the oppressive heat suggest there’s a high-pressure system about to come in and change the family in harsh ways. The stifling heat and punishing plains environment parallel the oppressive family dynamics, the guilt, the gaslighting, and the cycles of abuse. During one scene in the movie, the skies become ominous as the family travels the road between locations. This is Oklahoma in August, a time of dangerous storms and deadly tornadoes that can surprise you. Those ominous skies foreshadow ominous emotional storms to come. There are peaceful mornings where the sun shines and the birds sing. The last scene is one of my favorites, though it is not in the play. The scene where the stormy skies and oppressive heat seem to give way, to a peaceful sunset, complete with pastoral setting and the sounds of the peaceful environment, the play can’t hope mimic this vast scale and complete sensory stimulus of nature. Both Barbara and the environment seem to let go of the storm and lead on into the beautiful sunset come what may.
Overall, I feel the film adaptation was powerful. I miss the conversations with Beverly, the side characters, and the dialogue between Johnna and other main characters, but the core of this drama is powerful enough without these things. The dramatic cinematography, the top billed acting, the storms both emotional and environmental, leave a lasting impact in the viewer. I was sad, distressed, angry, hopeful, throughout both the play and the film, the visuals and the skills of the actors won the film over for me. I highly recommend “August: Osage County”, as a resounding adaptation success, and no wonder, as its own talented playwright created the adaptation.
