Hello everyone,
Today is the frabjous day, the day when I leave my
laziness and I start writing the blog which I‘ve been trying to write since the
last summer but as a result of my lack of time I’ve delayed till today. I know
it’s weird that I’ve more time when I’m at the University than in holidays but
I’m not like most of the people you know.
I present myself shortly. I’m Verónica, a lunatic of
cinema, 18 years old, Spanish and chocolate lover, studying Modern Languages
and Traducing till 7:00 p.m. when I start listening to music and living in
another world. If I were a rich girl I’d go every single day to cinema and I’d
travel around the world.
This blog has an objective and it’s that I improve my
English by doing what I love the most: talk about cinema. I’m going to try to
upload every weekend a post in which I’ll critic a movie, but I can’t promise
anything.
At January 10, 2014 I went to see with my best friend,
Madelyne, the film August: Osage county
and I had a great time that day, now it’s time to critic this delicious movie.
Why we
went to watch it?
I confess, I’m a BIG fan of Meryl Streep’s
performances therefore I had to watch it on the big screen, and my best, having
not options, came with me like a good friend. I went with high hopes and I’m
proud to say that it didn’t disappoint me.
Original
title: August: Osage county.
Duration:
119min.
Director:
John Wells.
Screenwriter:
Tracy Letts, the author of the book too who won a Tony and the Pulitzer Prize
thanks to the play.
Country:
EE.UU.
Genre:
comedy drama, family.
Cast:
Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Margo Martindale,
Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Dermot Mulroney,
Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard.
Summary: the Weston family lives in a huge mansion at
the outdoors of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The strange disappearance of the father
reunites the family and makes that all the miseries go out. Two of the three
daughters of the disappeared (Shepard) and of Violet (Streep) who has mouth cancer,
come back home: Barbara (Roberts) who is separating of his husband (McGregor)
and whose fourteen years old daughter (Breslin) is a bad-mannered, and Karen (Lewis)
who brings her new boyfriend (Mulroney) with her. The other daughter, Ivy
(Nicholson), is at home because she lives with her parents. At the same time,
Violet’s sister (Martindale) and her husband (Cooper) come to take care of
everything. Their son Charlie (Cumberbatch) comes later when all the tension
can be cut with a knife.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hd_uO72h1s
First
impression: it produces
stress, but a good one.
Second
impression: I realized
that my family isn’t the worst.
This movie has all the ingredients to be successful or
to fail. It’s like a recipe, it has good elements but it depends of who is
cooking and in this case who is seeing the movie. It has black humor, an
amazing cast of veteran actors and a genius script; all this is show at the
dinner scene which for me is the climax of the movie, when you can say if
you’re empty or full. Every dirty rag comes to light due to the character of
Violet Weston who is one of those despicable mothers that isn’t happy unless
everyone around her is panicked, nauseous or suicidal.
The rest of the family just hangs their heads towards
the fury of Violet’s words that direct like daggers to each one of the members,
less Barbara, the one that seems to have an armor of indifference in which her
mother’s reproaches slide off, the vast majority of times without hurting her,
or at least she hides her feeling so her mother can’t see them. Turning to be a
person more similar to her mother than what she thinks.
In each round of this combat between two of the
interpretation’s titans, we feel the hurt, the rage, the contempt and even the
strikes that they give to each other, either verbally or physically. But like
every succulent meal is accompanied by incoming and a dessert to make the meal
perfect and this is the task of the other supporting actors. Margo Martindale
and Chris Cooper seem like a real marriage married for many years; Julianne
Nicholson shows how good she is at suffering and Ewan McGregor whose
performance is bigger than his role.
The
surprise?
Bennedict Cumberbatch is wonderful as Charlie. No need
of words.
About
Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bHYKPc_g5w
A dictatorial mother suffering of mouth cancer, who
likes to reproach to her favourite daughter the thing that she left them and
her academic studies behind her, a mother’s girl who comes home when she knows
about the disappearance of his father, when she hadn’t come when the doctors
diagnose her mother cancer.
What I could say about Meryl Streep that you don’t
know yet? She’s talented, she gave life to Margaret
Thatcher and Karen Blixen, she
has tamed lions in Out of Africa, she
has been a polish enclosed in the concentration fields in Sophie’s choice and an evil editor in chief in The devil wears Prada, she probably can perform every role. And as
in many other occasions she makes an impeccable performance.
Julia Roberts, America’s bride, who has been in the
shadow for the past few years, returns better than ever.
They have shown us that all about the perfect American
family is a huge lie and they manifest the animal part that is included in the
human rationality. We guide ourselves for our instincts, we love and we hate.
And this is what I extracted of the movie, that even trying to be rational, we
can’t be when we’re submitted to one stressful situation, we’re just led by our
primal feelings.
The
worst?
The 3 last minutes should have been eliminated or at
least located before the last scene of Meryl Streep in which we can see at last
how is in reality the character of Violet Weston, tormented more for her past
than for the cancer.
The best?
Without doubt, the cast and the amazing adaptation of
the play made by the director.
Mark: 9’5.
Remember that this is my opinion, so it isn’t
necessary that it concurs with yours.
That’s all!
