I suppose the headline “August: Osage County reviewed by person who directed production in college” sounds like the makings of an Onion article, so I will say up front that my feelings on the play and its film adaptation must be taken with a few grains of salt.
I’m always intrigued when a piece of theatre is adapted into film. Some have been translated to wonderful success in recent years, Doubt immediately comes to mind. But then there are those that don’t quite know how to take the intimacy of the stage and adapt or expand it into the universe of film. Take Roman Polanksi’s Carnage for instance. Yasmina Reza’s comedy about a foursome of parents duking it out over bullying sons is made invigorating by the confinement of the one-room set. In the film, you just keep wondering, “Why don’t they just leave?”
In the case of Tracy Letts’ sprawling American drama August: Osage County, the transition from stage to film sees a fair split of pros and cons. The performances by and large are wonderful. Meryl Streep is predictably fantastic as ruthlessly cruel matriarch Violet Weston, and the supporting roles of Margo Martindale as Violet’s sister Mattie Fae and Juliette Lewis and Julianne Nicholson as Weston sisters Karen and Ivy (respectively) were particularly moving. Julia Roberts as eldest daughter Barbara seemed only truly present in the film’s climactic scene and Ewan McGregor was distractingly miscast as Barbara’s estranged husband, Bill.
The writing of course remains spectacular, though there were some unfortunate changes made for the sake of time at the expense of character. For example, I wonder – if Mr. Letts wanted the film to present Barbara as the story’s protagonist (as he has openly stated in interviews) why choose to exclude what are arguably the two most transformative scenes for her entire character? (Those familiar with the play will hopefully know to which scenes I am referring, as I found their absence from the final act extremely notable.)
But for me, the film’s biggest flaw was its neglect of perhaps the most important character in the play: The Weston family house. In the stage directions found in the published text courtesy of Dramatists Play Services, Inc. nearly the entire first two pages are taken up with extraordinary detail outlining every single room of this rotting Oklahoma house, all of which are seen onstage. It is a setting from which, in the theatre, the characters are not permitted to escape. Nor is the audience. The artificial light that dominates the house due to the boarded up windows and the gloominess it creates is inevitable in a playhouse, where there is indeed no natural lighting. In the film, light shines through the window in the very first scene.
The effect of the claustrophobia and imprisonment is lost in that sense, but I admit it is made up for in alternative ways. After all, the film does permit us to experience the feeling of ecstasy and freedom as one by one the family tears themselves away from Violet’s clutches by being able to show them literally driving away from the house. Indeed, Ivy’s final getaway filled me with a sense of relief akin to the reaction one has at the end of a horror movie as she has finally escaped her monstrous captor.
With a play as beloved and lauded as August: Osage County, adapting it into a film no doubt came with plenty of challenges. Though the convention of the camera does allow for a more expansive universe than the stage, so much of the effect is lost in wondering what and how long it will take for this family to completely self-destruct under the pressure of a single roof.
You can also find Will’s take on the film (without seeing the play) here.
Join the conversation