dvd of the week
The Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize winning play August: Osage County is considered one of the great theater events of the last decade. An extended family, full of secrets and problems verging on mental illness, come together for a funeral. All hell breaks loose. It’s funny, moving and upsetting. Somehow, in making the movie, John Wells, who has never directed a movie and best known for producing ER, was given the helm of a major prestige film starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Abigail Breslin, Chris Cooper and Juliette Lewis. While the pacing and visuals are fine, he has absolutely no control over the actors, who are hysterically unhinged. Streep, giving the worst performance of her career, seems to be a Saturday Night Live version of a drug addled crank; it’s great comedy, but not meant to be. While Julia Roberts, as her angry daughter, is much better; and the rest of the cast has their moments to varying degrees of ridiculousness, Streep eats them alive. Its great camp, but not a great movie.
