This film closes on Thursday, February 20th

Directed by John Wells (The Company Men) and adapted by Tracy Letts from his own Pulitzer Prize winning play, August: Osage County explores the complex relationships between the Weston family. After Beverly Weston (a brief, touching performance from Sam Shepard) goes missing his extended family reunite to support his wife Violet (Meryl Streep), a domineering recluse prone to pill-popping and irrational outbursts. This dramatic event ultimately brings tensions and secrets to the fore, and slowly the delicate ties that bind the family together begin to unravel.

Letts’ script performs a tricky balance between the blackly comedic and the quietly devastating and the cast, which includes Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch, more than do the material justice. But it’s Streep, in a performance that elicits sympathy and revulsion in equal measure, who astounds as the damaged, spiteful matriarch, delivering devastating put-downs with gusto. (Notes by Niall Macpherson.)

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