In the late 19th century a common playwriting trope was to build a play to moments of intensity where the star would astonish the audience with the brilliance of his or her acting. The plays had no real purpose other than to provide those moments; there was no dramatic core, no purpose to them other than that. Those kinds of plays, like "The Count of Monte Cristo", which O'Neill skewers in "Long Day's Journey Into Night", are dismissed today as tripe, as dated and manipulative nonsense.
"August: Osage County" is exactly that, only modern and written for an ensemble cast rather than for a single star. Sure, the acting is very good, but so what? Who cares? Where's the story? What's the point? Why are we spending time with these people?
Understand, my complaint is not that "August: Osage County" is depressing, it's that it's cheap. Many fine movies are miserably depressing, but they're honest, they're driven by something other than a desire to create 'actory' moments; "The Swimmer" comes to mind, as does "The Night Porter", and "Enemies: A Love Story", and "The Bicycle Thief", and "Ikiru"... This thing, on the other hand... it feels like Tracy Letts just piled misery upon misery upon misery for no reason other than his belief that that gets you taken seriously. And considering the awards the play received, he was right, which hardly speaks well for the state of dramatic criticism.
At one point (spoiler ahead), after he's already been larding the suffering on with a trowel for quite a while, there's a death scene -- and while watching it I just couldn't help myself, I laughed out loud.
Seriously, what is the point of this? In playwriting class, the first principle they teach is that "drama is the day the change occurred". In other words, if there is no chance of change, if the characters (at least the protagonist) are not wrestling with an inner conflict that could resolve itself several ways, then there is no drama. That's the case with "August: Osage County". You might as well be watching a B-Western for all the real depth there is to the characters. Each time you're introduced to a character (with one or two very minor exceptions) you know exactly who they are now and exactly who they'll be at the end of the movie. It's just 'sound and fury, signifying nothing'.
In a word, trash.
"August: Osage County" is exactly that, only modern and written for an ensemble cast rather than for a single star. Sure, the acting is very good, but so what? Who cares? Where's the story? What's the point? Why are we spending time with these people?
Understand, my complaint is not that "August: Osage County" is depressing, it's that it's cheap. Many fine movies are miserably depressing, but they're honest, they're driven by something other than a desire to create 'actory' moments; "The Swimmer" comes to mind, as does "The Night Porter", and "Enemies: A Love Story", and "The Bicycle Thief", and "Ikiru"... This thing, on the other hand... it feels like Tracy Letts just piled misery upon misery upon misery for no reason other than his belief that that gets you taken seriously. And considering the awards the play received, he was right, which hardly speaks well for the state of dramatic criticism.
At one point (spoiler ahead), after he's already been larding the suffering on with a trowel for quite a while, there's a death scene -- and while watching it I just couldn't help myself, I laughed out loud.
Seriously, what is the point of this? In playwriting class, the first principle they teach is that "drama is the day the change occurred". In other words, if there is no chance of change, if the characters (at least the protagonist) are not wrestling with an inner conflict that could resolve itself several ways, then there is no drama. That's the case with "August: Osage County". You might as well be watching a B-Western for all the real depth there is to the characters. Each time you're introduced to a character (with one or two very minor exceptions) you know exactly who they are now and exactly who they'll be at the end of the movie. It's just 'sound and fury, signifying nothing'.
In a word, trash.