Meryl Streep in August: Osage County

Meryl Streep broke her own record once again and received her 18th nomination for playing Violet Weston, a vicious, drug addict matriarch in the movie based on Tracy Letts' play, August: Osage County. While many people doubted Streep's chances of getting nominated (and I was one of them), with hindsight, it seems absurd. Not only does Meryl have a crazy Oscar bait role, but she can also never do any wrong as far as the Academy is concerned. That being said, Meryl's chances of winning haven't been as slim since Helen Mirren swept everything.

August: Osage County as a movie shows us the limits of adapting a play to the big screen. For me, the performance of the play that I saw was among the best I've ever seen and the actress playing Violet gave what I consider the greatest stage performance that I've ever seen. However, I don't think the play is not as brilliant as some make it out to be: it really does offer plenty of opportunities for its actors, but it's a story that we have seen over and over again (that being said, I wasn't that impressed by the footages of the Broadway version, but Broadway hardly does it for me, sorry). It's a story that depends hugely on its cast and how much of it they are able to deliver. The adaptation for the big screen is one of the successful ones (hell, it's better than Doubt). It feels like more of a summary but the cast is indeed outstanding, but I especially want to praise two unsung heroes, Julianne Nicholson and Margo Martindale. They didn't get all the credit that they deserved (especially Nicholson, who was just heartbreaking). Julia Roberts did a good job here though I have to say that I don't really get all the love for her (and I'm actually a fan of hers in general) - she didn't nail all the edges in this character and the adaptation let her down and contrary to the public opinion she was less of a lead than she was in the play. I didn't have the impression that she was also turning into the monster that her mother is.

And who else plays that monster than Meryl Streep? Yes, as Tina Fey said, there are still good roles... for Meryl Streeps over sixty. I carefully considered all the other alternatives for the role and I figured that Meryl was a great choice for the part. Although in my opinion, Jane Fonda (why, what did you expect :P) could have nailed this role and would have killed as this vampire slash dragon lady and she would have also shown a new side of hers, I feel like Meryl was a respectable safe choice here. She's, above all, reliable: she can, of course, nail the accent, chew the scenery (in a good way, well, for me at least) and bring all the necessary number of viewers to this film. Naturally, all the usual talk started with people from test screenings bringing the news of her certain fourth Oscar.

Somehow over the course of awards season, the Streep fatigue and the backlash started and many people started to doubt her. That being said, I feel that the backlash is created exclusively on goldderby forums and the general public and the Academy surely didn't get the memos. They still love Meryl and everything she does - and you know what, rightfully so. This backlash that I was certainly aware of, had an impact on my expectations (and to this, you have to also add the initial talk that she wasn't the right choice for the role, at all). I was prepared that this lady is unworthy of every accolade she has achieved in her career, cannot give a decent performance and is even worse here.

And guess what, this is Meryl f*cking Streep. And guess what: she's worthy of all the accolades, usually gives amazing performances and she's even better than her average self here. Within the limits of the screenplay (because this is a diet version of Violet Weston), she just kills it and there's no other way to put it. Yep, she uses her "Meryl tricks" and guess what, once again it works. Her character appears on screen, unable to speak or keep balance and Meryl just nails it: right there in that moment, we get to know everything about this woman: she's a monster with a touch of humanity inside her (and that's also where we get to my criticism of Julia Roberts' performance: we don't get to see that Barbara starts from the opposite and almost ends up there). She breaks your heart and amazes you with her unbelievable talent at the same time.

That being said, Meryl is completely aware of the insanely dark comedic tone of the material and uses to her advantage: her line deliveries are insanely sharp and punch you right in your stomach while you're laughing your head off at the same time. We get a sort of perverted joy from all the vitriol that she spits out: we enjoy it and it's easy to see that Meryl enjoys it, too. Perhaps what's most appealing about this performance is how much she loves to do this part: she doesn't take all the opportunities for granted and doesn't miss any of them. And  what's best is how she's able to make her technical virtuosity flow out of her so effortlessly (I guess this point of mine that's highly argumentative to some). There's a buzz around Meryl that I feel whenever she's amazing and not even she's able to fake that. It's funny that you can test an actress who relies so heavily on the technical part solely with your guts. But if we come to think of it, its really the tester of how natural she is: if you are captivated by her, she did her job well, if not, then it's really just faking.

Also, Meryl fearlessly points out the desperation of this woman: the way we see her crazy dance to country music when she receives a shocking piece of news, high on pills, unable to express herself. It could seem like overreacting, but most of us tend to forget about the character's whole situation: we're talking about a drug addict, who's by the way dying of mouth cancer and is in constant pain, while also being abandoned and despised by her own family. And that's what makes her breathtaking scene at the dinner table resonate with me even more: those pills are indeed Violet's best friends. The obvious bitterness and sadness present in that scene make it a hard-hitting and heartbreaking cry for help. Violet has certain aspects of a drama queen inside her.

And as Violet sinks deeper and deeper, this performance gets more and more heartbreaking and the comedy of the play simply turns into something weirdly disturbing. But that's also how we get to why I would have wished for a little bit more. In the end, as all the characters get their big moments, the screenplay forgets about Violet in a way and blocks her journey, especially with this disappointing ending. In the play, the way it showed Violet's loneliness and devastation really made up for her lack of presence, but here, these efforts were cut short by a useless scene with Julia Roberts crying. Meryl was deprived of her big scene that would have been essential to make her performance more complete and more effective.

That being said, Meryl Streep gives an amazing performance as Violet Weston and although she was cheated out of some of the great opportunities of the play, she was still able to rock on the big screen once again. Haters are gonna hate, but guess what, I'm not one of them and I can do nothing but love this outstanding piece of work by this brilliant actress.

What do you think?