| August: Osage County | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Wells |
| Screenplay by | Tracy Letts |
| Based on | August: Osage County by Tracy Letts |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Adriano Goldman |
| Edited by | Stephen Mirrione |
| Music by | Gustavo Santaolalla |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | The Weinstein Company |
Release dates |
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Running time | 120 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $37 million[2] |
| Box office | $74.2 million[3] |
August: Osage County is a 2013 Americantragicomedy film directed byJohn Wells. It was written byTracy Letts and based on hisPulitzer Prize-winning2007 play of the same name. It was produced byGeorge Clooney,Grant Heslov,Jean Doumanian, and Steve Traxler.
The film stars anensemble cast consisting ofMeryl Streep,Julia Roberts,Ewan McGregor,Chris Cooper,Abigail Breslin,Benedict Cumberbatch,Juliette Lewis,Margo Martindale,Dermot Mulroney,Julianne Nicholson, andMisty Upham as a dysfunctional family that reunites at the family home when their patriarch (Sam Shepard) suddenly disappears.
August: Osage County premiered at theToronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2013, and was released in North America on December 27, 2013. A modest commercial success, the film received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics.[4] While much praise was given to the cast, the screenplay was praised by some and seen by others as too dark and lacking in humor.[5][6] For their performances in the film, Streep and Roberts receivedOscar nominations forBest Actress andBest Supporting Actress, respectively.
The title designates time and location: an unusually hot August in a rural area outsidePawhuska, Oklahoma, 60 miles Northwest ofTulsa. Beverly Weston, an alcoholic, once-noted poet, teacher and author, interviews and hires a youngCheyenne woman, Johnna, as a live-in cook and caregiver for his strong-willed and contentious wife Violet, who has oral cancer and an addiction to narcotics. Shortly after this, he disappears from the house, and Violet calls her sister and daughters for support. Her sister Mattie Fae arrives with her husband Charles "Charlie" Aiken. Violet's middle daughter Ivy is single and the only one living locally; Barbara, her oldest, who has inherited her mother's mean streak, arrives from Colorado with her husband Bill and 14-year-old daughter Jean. Barbara and Bill are separated, but they put up a united front for Violet.
After five days, the sheriff arrives with the news that Beverly took his boat out on the lake and has drowned. Youngest daughter Karen arrives with the latest in a string of boyfriends, Steve Huberbrecht, a sleazy Florida businessman whom she introduces as her fiancé. Mattie Fae and Charles's 37-year-old awkward son "Little Charles" misses the funeral because he overslept and is met at the bus station by his father. Charlie loves his son, whereas Mattie Fae constantly belittles him. Ivy confides to her sisters that she is in love with Little Charles, her cousin, who plans to move to New York, and that she cannot have children because she had a hysterectomy. She feels this is her only chance to finally marry.
The family sits down to dinner after the funeral; fueled by drugs, Violet insults and embarrasses each person at the table under the guise of "truth-telling", which results in Barbara pouncing on her in a fit of anger. Barbara has had enough of her mother's drug addiction, attacks her, knocks her to the ground, and confiscates her multitude of pills. Later, after Violet has had a chance to sober up, she has a tender moment with her daughters and shares a story that demonstrates how cruel her own mother was when she longed for a new pair of cowgirl boots when she was in her early teens. Instead of giving Violet the boots she wanted, her mother gave her a beautifully wrapped box on Christmas morning containing old, filthy men's work boots as a cruel prank.
The next day, when Little Charles sings Ivy a song he has written for her, Mattie Fae walks in and berates him. This exhausts Charlie's patience with his wife's lack of love and compassion for her own son, and he threatens to leave her if she keeps it up. Mattie Fae subsequently reveals to Barbara, who unintentionally listened in, that long ago she had an affair with Beverly, and Little Charles is in fact their younger half-brother as well as their cousin and that is the true reason why he and Ivy cannot be together.
That evening, Steve and Jean are sharing a joint. Steve comes on to Jean, gets her stoned, asks her to show him her breasts, and starts to assault her. Johnna is woken by their conversation, sees this, and attacks him with a shovel. The commotion wakes up Barbara, Bill, and Karen who rush outside. Barbara confronts Jean and slaps her. This compels Bill to take Jean back to Colorado, leaving Barbara. Karen refuses to admit that her relationship is doomed and also leaves with Steve.
Later, Ivy tries to tell her mother about her relationship with Little Charles. Barbara tries to deflect the admission to protect Ivy from the truth. Violet tells Ivy that Charles is actually her brother, something Violet knew all along. Devastated, Ivy leaves and promises to never come back. In the last confrontation between Violet and Barbara, Violet admits she was contacted by Beverly from his motel the week after he had left home but did nothing to help him until after she removed money from the couple's joint safe deposit box. By that time, he had already killed himself. This revelation leads Barbara to depart, realizing that her mother is far beyond help. Violet is left with only Johnna. Violet begins dancing to loud music but quickly becomes too upset and goes off to find Johnna for comfort.
Barbara, driving through the plains, pulls off the road, gets out of her pickup, and cries. She then gets back in the truck and continues west, following signage showing highways and number of miles to Wichita, Salina, and Denver.
John Wells directed, whileGeorge Clooney,Grant Heslov,Jean Doumanian, and Steve Traxler produced the film.[7][8][9]Renée Zellweger andAndrea Riseborough were considered to play Karen. Riseborough was cast but withdrew due to scheduling conflicts.Juliette Lewis replaced her.[10]Chloë Grace Moretz also auditioned for the role of Jean.[11]
Principal photography took place between October 16 and December 8, 2012,[9] inBartlesville andPawhuska, Oklahoma, and Los Angeles.
August: Osage County premiered at the2013 Toronto International Film Festival[12][13] on September 9, 2013, before its release in select cities on December 27, 2013, followed by a wide release on January 10, 2014, in the United States. It was also released on January 1, 2014, in Australia. In its limited box-office debut, the film grossed $179,475 from five theaters, a $35,895 per-screen average.[14]
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On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 67% of 205 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "The sheer amount of acting going on inAugust: Osage County threatens to overwhelm, but when the actors involved are as talented as Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, it's difficult to complain."[15]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 58 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[16] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[17]
| Awards | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards[18] | Best Actress | Meryl Streep | Nominated |
| Best Supporting Actress | Julia Roberts | Nominated | |
| AACTA International Awards[19] | Best Actress | Meryl Streep | Nominated |
| Best Supporting Actress | Julia Roberts | Nominated | |
| AARP Annual Movies for Grownups Awards[20] | Best Supporting Actor | Chris Cooper | Won |
| American Cinema Editors[21] | Best Edited Feature Film - Comedy/Musical | Stephen Mirrione | Nominated |
| Art Directors Guild[22] | Excellence in Production Design - Contemporary Film | David Gropman | Nominated |
| BAFTA Awards[23] | Best Supporting Actress | Julia Roberts | Nominated |
| Britannia Awards[24] | British Artist of the Year | Benedict Cumberbatch(also for his work on12 Years a Slave,The Fifth Estate,The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, andStar Trek Into Darkness) | Won |
| Critics' Choice Movie Awards[25] | Best Actress | Meryl Streep | Nominated |
| Best Supporting Actress | Julia Roberts | Nominated | |
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Tracy Letts | Nominated | |
| Detroit Film Critics Society[26] | Best Actress | Meryl Streep | Nominated |
| Best Ensemble | Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts,Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper,Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch,Juliette Lewis,Margo Martindale,Dermot Mulroney,Julianne Nicholson,Sam Shepard, andMisty Upham | Nominated | |
| Best Supporting Actress | Julia Roberts | Nominated | |
| Golden Globe Awards[27][28] | Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Meryl Streep | Nominated |
| Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture | Julia Roberts | Nominated | |
| Hollywood Film Festival[29] | Ensemble of the Year | Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard, and Misty Upham | Won |
| Supporting Actress of the Year | Julia Roberts | Won | |
| Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards[30][31] | Best Sound Editing: Dialogue & ADR in a Feature Film | Lon Bender | Nominated |
| Oklahoma Film Critics Circle[32] | Not-So-Obviously Worst Film | August: Osage County | Won |
| Phoenix Film Critics Society[33][34] | Best Cast | Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard, and Misty Upham | Nominated |
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Tracy Letts | Nominated | |
| Best Actress | Meryl Streep | Nominated | |
| Best Supporting Actress | Julia Roberts | Nominated | |
| Satellite Awards[35] | Best Actress – Motion Picture | Meryl Streep | Nominated |
| Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Julia Roberts | Nominated | |
| Screen Actors Guild Awards[36] | Outstanding Female Actor in a Leading Role | Meryl Streep | Nominated |
| Outstanding Female Actor in a Supporting Role | Julia Roberts | Nominated | |
| Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture | Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard, and Misty Upham | Nominated | |
| St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association[37] | Best Actress | Meryl Streep | Nominated |
| Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association[38] | Best Actress | Meryl Streep | Nominated |
| Best Acting Ensemble | Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard, and Misty Upham | Nominated | |
| Writers Guild of America Award[39] | Best Adapted Screenplay | Tracy Letts | Nominated |
Gustavo Santaolalla composed the original music forAugust: Osage County. The soundtrack was released on December 31, 2013, throughSony Classical.[40] An album of Santaolalla's score was released digitally on the same date.[41]
