Staying at home watching a film on a Saturday night with a cold does not sound like the optimal way to spend a weekend night. Personally, I’d rather read with a cup of tea and subtract the “with a cold.” Anyway, if I’m home bound and don’t have the mental capacity to read, I might as well watch a great film. And that is exactly what I did last night. “August: Osage County” is an amazing film, dark and ominous, with a superb cast and a fairly creepy, yet crazy story line, that it keeps the viewer engrossed for its 2 hours.

The film is set in sweltering Oklahoma where a couple, Violet (Meryl Streep) and Beverly (Sam Shepard), have lived for most of their lives. In this home, they raised their 3 daughters: Barb (Julia Roberts), Ivy (Julianne Nicholson), and Karen (Juliette Lewis). The film surrounds the disappearance of Beverly, which forces the three sisters to all come home. Not only do the girls come home, but also Violet’s sister and husband (Margo Martindale and Chris Cooper) as well as their son Charlie (Benedict Cumberbatch). Barb brings her husband and daughter along for the ride (Ewan McGregor and Abigail Breslin) and I guess you could say that this is the ultimate family reunion. In the end, they find Beverly committed suicide off of his boat in the lake and the film then turns to the repercussions of all the daughters being home and family dynamics.

I do not normally list actors in my posts about films, but the above really drives the point home of the super cast that was assembled for this film. I cannot stress the importance of this, in that each actor played their character amazingly and emphasized their unique perspective and characteristics. Moreover, this film was not only about how a family responds to a loved one’s death, but also family dynamics. And lets just say a circus has less family dynamics than this bunch. I really cannot put to words the complexities of this group of individuals. Violet is a drug addict, Ivy is in love with Charles (her first cousin, who has his own secret), Barb and Bill are separated and most likely will be divorced, Steven (Dermot Mulroney and Karen’s fiancee) wants Jean (Barb’s daughter) to smoke pot with him and then tries to make the moves on her, and Mattie Fae hates her own son Charles. And that’s just the major portions of the family fights that happen.

Honestly, this film was 2 hours of non-stop drama and I loved it, but it was the ending that really was the most outstanding. I have not seen an exceptional amount of films in my day, yet the ones that I have seen usually result in “happy endings.” Now, don’t get me wrong, sometimes happy endings are great and make you feel all warm and cuddly inside. But sometimes you need an unhappy ending and boy did this film provide that. This is a **spoiler alert** but everyone in turn hates each other by the end of the film. Karen and Steve leave after Steve is attacked by the “Native American” worker for giving Jean pot. The truth comes out that Fannie Mae had an affair with Beverly and Charles is half brother AND cousin of the three girls so Ivy has been sleeping with her half brother. Lastly, Bill and Barb choose to get divorced and Barb is left with Violet and then they have a fight and Barb leaves. Essentially, Violet has destroyed the family. This was a great ending to a really great film, granted it was dark (oh so very dark) but oh so amazing at the same time.

One comment I do want to talk about before I end this point is a theme by which I have lived my life and one that was quite evident throughout the film. There are drastic similarities between Barb and Violet. It comes to blows at the end, in which Ivy says that Barb is looking in a mirror when she looks at Violet. In the middle of the film, Violet talks about her mother and when Violet was a child wanted a pair of boots. Her mother gave her a pair for Christmas covered in cow poo, mud, and utterly destroyed and laughed for weeks after that. Violet’s mother was an angry woman, Violet raised her daughters as an angry mother and they all left (except Ivy, and even then Ivy was the disappointment) and one could see Barb’s interaction with Jean and how she was continuing the cycle. Bill cheated on Barb with a younger woman, yet Jean continued to favor her father over her mother because Barb was a mean-spirited woman and was repeating the cycle of her mother and grandmother. My theme to live by: if you know how a person is, and do not think highly of it, do NOT be like that person. Stop the trend, stop cycle, just don’t fall into the same traits. This theme transcends family, and could be considered in everyday life. You don’t like your boss at work and feel like he/she doesn’t know how to lead, take that and learn from it. Very applicable to things of everyday life.

In the end, the film was amazing and I cannot really put into words how awesome it was. Everyone deserved recognition for playing such unique and complex characters. If you are in the mood for a great film, and are in the right mindset it would be a great piece to watch.