Review: August: Osage County (UK Cert 15)

Blood is thicker than water. You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. Both of these truisms have at their heart the complex and sometimes fractious relationship of family at their core, and that's something that describes August: Osage County to a tee. A merciless dissection of a dysfunctional family brought together by tragedy, it's adapted by Tracy Letts from his own Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play. It also brings together one of the finest ensemble casts assembled on-screen.

Leading from the front is Meryl Streep in a role that has just garnered her an unparalleled eighteenth Oscar nomination. Formidable matriarch Violet Weston is an absolute gem of a role and Streep attacks it with gusto- Violet is by turns a pathetic, fragile, drug-addled mess, without her wig and glazed behind the eyes (she is receiving treatment for mouth cancer) and then she's a malevolent presence at the dinner table, poised like a black widow spider, cigarette in hand, ready to deliver a barbed comment (of which there are many) at any of the unfortunate family members round the table. There are times when you really feel for the woman and there are times that you just want to slap her, but she's a force of nature and it's another very impressive performance by one of the world's very best actresses.

Equally as good is Julia Roberts, who plays eldest daughter Barbara. Struggling with the breakdown of her own marriage to Bill (a quiet and studious Ewan McGregor) and dealing with a precocious teenage daughter (Abigail Breslin), Barbara clashes spectacularly with Violet and also becomes embroiled in the other dramas circling the Weston household as- inevitably- old secrets are revealed and age-old resentments come to the boil. It's a tough role but Roberts acquits herself perfectly in it.

Whilst Roberts and Streep have had the lion's share of the awards praise, each member of the ensemble cast is pitched perfect. This is high drama, heightened drama and every member of the main cast gets a moment to shine. It seems unfair to single any member out, as they all do such a sterling job. Julianne Nicholson and Juliette Lewis play the other two Weston daughters- Ivy and Karen- and there's a wonderful scene between the three sisters where a few surprising truths tumble out; Nicholson is just excellent as the mousy Ivy while Lewis is great as the slightly self-deluding Karen. There's a strong performance by Margo Martindale as Violet's sister Mattie Fae, another vicious-tongued harridan who hasn't got a good word to say for her own son Little Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch, playing against type as a nervy, anxious man with a secret love). Chris Cooper has some great scenes as de facto patriarch Charlie, particularly when he calls Mattie Fae out about her treatment of their son.

This is an adaptation of a play and feels like it- it never really slips from the stage origins. Apart from some brooding shots of the Oklahoma landscape, the action is focused on the actors and their performances. But that's OK. There doesn't need to be any visual tricks or gimmicks- the pyrotechnics here come from the words. Director John Wells has a strong grounding in directing for TV (having done episodes of ER and the US version of Shameless) and it shows. It's almost as if he's set the cameras up and let the actors get on with it, and when you have actors of this calibre, they will not disappoint.

Letts also wrote the plays Bug and Killer Joe (both have been filmed), both of which take a very bleak look at the world and human relations. The same is true here: there's precious little comfort here, people are- in some cases- unnecessarily cruel to one another, and the one glimpse of happiness is shot down in a shocking revelation which, for me, delivered an exquisite little gut-punch but might leave others cold. There has been so many other secrets revealed up to this point that it could be felt that another might overturn the apple-cart and launch the film into a place that's almost too ridiculous. But for me, it worked, even if it does rob the piece of a saving grace.

This will not be to everyone's tastes. It does present a very bleak view of the world and the people in it, that people are selfish and cruel and nasty to those they're supposed to love, and it's also got a rather downbeat view of family (Ivy states at one point that they're 'just people, accidentally connected by genetics') but it's wickedly funny in place- the script is alive with so many vicious one-liners, it's unreal- and the uniformally brilliant performances makes it shine.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Tez

Review: Ender's Game (UK Cert 12A)

Based on the award-winning 1985 science-fiction novel by Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game is the latest film from Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Having not read the book and knowing very little about the film- except for the furore that's erupted over some of Card's personal views- I went in with an open mind. 

The plot follows a lot of the traditional sci-fi tropes: the outsider who becomes the hero, his training to get there, the ragtag bunch of misfits who help the hero and so on. There has been a war against the Formics (ant/mantis type creatures) which had decimated Earth and so, to ensure it doesn't happen again, children are trained to become military tacticians as their minds are more open. And so we come to Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a third child who is recruited by Colonel Hiram Graff (Harrison Ford) to train to become an officer. 

Ender is basically used as a human guinea pig, put into situations to see how he deals with frustration, anger and so on. His brother was too violent, his sister too compassionate- Ender is supposed to be the balance between the two. It's a decent enough central performance by Butterfield but I found the character of Ender difficult to empathise with, which is a shame- he is so mistreated throughout that it almost feels like kicking a puppy not to like him. 

Other performances are similarly decent enough- Ford is good as the grizzled old Colonel, whilst there's a lovely turn by Viola Davis as Major Anderson. Ben Kingsley pops up towards the end, but his accent wanders all across the shop- firstly sounding South African before landing in New Zealand but occasionally lapsing into Cockney. Hailee Steinfeld's not bad as the token female cadet Petra, but the jury's still out on whether there was supposed to be a romance subplot or not- it feels like there should have been and some of the signs were there, but it wasn't completed. Abigail Breslin turns in a nice cameo as Ender's sister Valentine, doing well with what she's given. Some of the dialogue is a bit clunky and some of the pseudo-philosophical discourse (especially between Ender and his sister) just comes across as pretentious- although that could as easily be a fault in the original text as with the script.

It's a visually impressive film throughout and the filmmakers get some extra kudos for resisting the urge to post-render this into 3D. The scenes in the Battle Room (the training room) are all shot well and the zero-gravity element is handled well. There's also a stunning piece of physical creature work towards the end which is sublime but sadly underused.

There's a twist towards the end of the film that has the potential to absolutely knock you sideways- unless, like me, you guess it. To be fair, it isn't telegraphed a mile off. As I watched, a thought entered my mind and it was proved right. It raises a couple of interesting questions but also added to the slightly disturbing aftertaste I experienced..

Ender's Game is an ambitious film but is lacking a killer blow. Visually stunning but a bit weak in the script, the acting is perfectly serviceable but nothing stunning. Better than merely average but far from superb.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Tez