Blueprints: "August: Osage County"
Thursday, November 23, 2017 at 3:00PM Happy Thanksgiving! In these days of family forcefully gathering around for a meal, Jorge takes a look into “August: Osage County” to remind you that your relatives perhaps aren’t so bad after all.
Not unlike Thanksgiving itself, Tracy Lett’s August: Osage County is about a broken family that is bound to be around each other as past secrets, tensions and grievances slowly rise up to the surface.
The emotional climax of both the 2008 Tony-winning play and its subsequent 2013 Oscar-nominated adaptation is an almost 20-minute dinner sequence after the funeral that brought them all together. Matriarch Violet Weston (Meryl Streep) asserts her toxic matriarchal power over her family. And slowly but surely, tensions escalate to the point of explosion...
Let’s see how the script of the movie handles the tension of this scene, making sure it slowly bubbles and intensifies throughout almost twenty pages; as long as how being present on that dinner must have felt like.
August: Osage County
Written by: Tracy Letts, based on his own play
[You can read the full script here. I will be talking about these pages and this scene.]
This infamously uncomfortable dinner (that ends with a full physical confrontation between Violet and her daughter Barbara, played by Julia Roberts), is perhaps the most representative sequence from the film, and from its original source material. But it is also the least cinematic.
It's where the stage origins of the movie are the most evident. It includes some of the most biting lines of dialogue and mini-monologues (Violet’s “Whadda you do?” speech is pure venom), and it’s where the actors get to do some of the most overt and, well, theatrical acting, in particular Violet and Barbara. But it is also all set around a table, one of the trickiest places to creatively shoot around. Every character of the movie is present, and it is basically a 20-minute long conversation, with very little action and all of the dialogue.
Tracy Letts, who wrote the original play and adapted it for the screen, is aware of this. He decides to pull focus into the things that he knows will carry the material: the sharp dialogue and the performances of an all-star cast.
Structurally, this scene is a tug of war, a constant pull-and-push between Violet and her family, Whenever she is about to go too far, someone else comes in and pulls back to release the tension; a tension that, we very well know, can’t be contained for long. Until it doesn’t, and Barbara tackles her mother to take her bottle of pills away. This constant holding and release of stress is what's able to carry audience engagement from start to finish; the omnipresent threat of things exploding always looming over the family.
And just as he does on stage, Letts lets the actors and the words they throw at each other do most of the work. Visually, the pages of the script read as mostly dialogue, with very little action lines placed in between. The scene heading does not change for over 19 pages, which is something incredibly rare in screenplays. He also masterfully uses the dual dialogue feature to convey the chaos of people talking one another, something essential for the mood of the film.
***
Cinematically, director John Wells doesn’t do anything formally radical to convey the tension of the evening. He slips in some carefully picked reaction shots of the family members, and gives Meryl and Julia their respective moments to shine. But he mostly places the camera as an observant, letting the actors have their way with the screenplay.
This scene had all the elements to become a cinematic nightmare: a one-location dialogue-fest with over a dozen actors present. However, instead of trimming it or making it more visually exciting, the script trusts in the actors and the dialogue to carry momentum The end-result was a scene that landed an Oscar nomination for both its leads.
So now that you've spent a single meal with the Westons, go and enjoy a loving holiday with your loved ones. Or flush their pills down the toilet. Hey, it happens in every family. Happy Thanksgiving!
Reader Comments (23)
It's a testament to Meryl's fantastic work as Violet that you (well I) can hear the voice and the rhythm that she chose for the role when I read the script.
At the time of their respective releases, the most prestigeous of Meryl's Broadway adaptations, Doubt and August: Osage County, were not very well received. The critics who did not like the films surely would have hated A Streetcar Named Desire, The Little Foxes and Death of a Salesman. They're play adaptations, for heaven's sakes! Same thing happened to Fences.
A side note: both actresses who originated Meryl's roles on Broadway, Cherry Jones and Deanna Dunagan, won a Tony for Best Actress.
Fantastic acting. The movie not so much though.
I understand and agree with the majority of the criticisms levied against the film adaptation, but I still enjoy watching it. I'm also one of those people who think Julia is as good as (maybe even better than) Meryl in the film.
I agree that Julia Roberts gave a better performance. She wanted to play that character and wanted this movie to happen. I'm glad she isn't resting on her America's sweetheart laurels and continues to challenge herself.
Julia is the MVP and she is AMAZING!
To me, Streeo is the weakest link here because Streep lacks the edge and attitude to become this kind of character. Glenn Close, Sarandon, Lily Tomlin, Cherry Jones would all have been a better choice
Just thought I'd chime in and say that to me the MVP is Julianne Nicholson: heartbreaking without showboating, a believably tragic figure. Next is Juliette Lewis who managed to say more in her very few scenes.
Streep is the center of the movie and elevated everyone else. This adaptation looks better with age because of the text and acting.
I luv me some Meryl, but she's way too OTT here, chewing up the whole scenery n stolen the slot tt shld've been Emma Thompson's!!
Meryl was awful. OTT and simply didn't have it to play a mean-spirited character. Awful, awful. awful.
Meryl OTT??? If this role were to offer to Glen Close, Emma Thompson or Jessica Lange ..... they will show us what real OTT is !
Jessica Lange would have been perfect in this role. I always thought she would have been excellent as Violet. Meryl brought a big plate of ham to the table. Definitely OTT.
Meryl was wonderful. The haters should stfu.
Meryl's perfect here.She goes as much over the top as it is needed for the character. I agree that if Lange or Close got it, it would have been a real camp fest.
Maybe I should give this film version another try, but the first time I saw this, I felt like I was watching a lot of high class actors playing acting working class people.
For as much as I adore Meryl, I remain convinced that Judy Davis would have been the perfect brittle, raging, heartbreaking onscreen Violet.
Judy Davis--great casting!
Sorry, but I still think Meryl was phenomenal here. Those who are saying Faye, Susan, etc are just typecasting
My God, how Judy Davis should get an incredibly meaty leading role and get the Oscar that she was robbed off of twice !
I loved Juliette Lewis in this film! Her character seemed the most real to me. Youngest daughter, lived like the "baby" her whole life, was probably treated differently because of her beauty (in ways both good and bad).
My friend can't stand Julia Roberts but loved her in this film because "she wasn't Julia Roberts." Can't say I disagree.
Anyone who thinks Meryl is not ham-baked, just watch this again and time that cackle at the dinner table. It goes on as long as D-Day in Saving Private Ryan.
The editing was terrible at the most crucial moments and the direction was sooo bland... Also the Academy voters and aaaaall the precursors were blinded by their love for Meryl Streep. She's one of my all time favorites but she was just too much in this.
Julia should have been nominated instead of Streep in the leading category, and Julianne Nicholson should have been a supporting nominee because her performance is the second best in the film, stealing the show from a lot of bigger stars.
Muy buenas! Javi L. No soy de comentar jeje pero hoy si lo hago! Me gustó mucho tu blog :)