August: Osage County by John Wells

It would be easy to say August: Osage County was a great film and it was, but the truth is, it was also incredibly stressful to watch. It takes place over just a few weeks yet its densely-packed chock full of emotional drama scenes managed to both tax my nerves and rivet me.

Spoiler Alert: The film takes place in Oklahoma where a husband Beverly (played by Sam Shepard) commits suicide at the beginning of the film. As the family gathers for the funeral, the dysfunctionality of the Weston family unfolds—or should I say—comes apart at the seams. Death has a way of doing this to families. The beautifully weathered house serves symbolically for the battered family of three girls who have suffered and survived years of their tragically mean-spirited mother Violet played amazingly by Meryl Streep.

This film is so real; it’s downright painful beyond words, plus—well, I just couldn’t take my eyes off it like a train wreck. The wake dinner is an unforgettable film scene to go down in history, worth the price of the film alone. If you’ve survived the storm of family dynamics following a family suicide, or any sort of death, this film will assure you you’re not alone and bound to offer some solace. It will certainly also remind us how a death, and the subsequent estate, can bring out the worst in family members—the hurt bursting open like festering sores. I won’t spoil the truths that emerge, but put a family in a house together for a few days due to a death, add a bitter mother and family members will continue to explode moment by moment on the screen.

A rare tender moment
(credit: Chicagonow.com)

There was a point where the metaphor of Violet’s cancer of the mouth spewed words so sharp from her, I almost shut the video off. But I was glad to have stuck with it. The rare moments of tenderness balance out the pain. Through it all, the Westons prove how families do stick together because it’s the only family they have. Even if it means going back their separate ways into life again.

We watch as the web of love, heartstrings and blood endears them as a dysfunctional whole. As we follow along, we also understand that “dysfunctional” is now the new “normal.” The richness of seeing the Westons at their worst is comforting for those reeling and coping from their own intense family dynamics.

Towards the end, one of Violet’s daughters sums it up, “I know how this goes,” she pauses, “Once the talk is through, people go back to their same nonsense.” This is why watching someone else’s nonsense is not only entertaining, but can be incredibly cathartic.

• We have found that many of our SevenPonds users who watched a film offering a similar experience had a personal cathartic turning point towards healing from a death. For a selection of films with a short description, visit our film library.