Meryl Streep, utterly amazing as always, plays Violet Weston, the silver-tongued matriarch of a dysfunctional Southern family. Suffering from mouth cancer and an addiction to prescription pills, it quickly becomes evident that the mouth cancer is a result of the poisonous remarks she and her relatives sling at each other. This hostile environment eventually drives her husband to suicide and her adult children away. The character is oddly familiar, like everyone’s grandmother who unabashedly spews racist remarks at the dinner table, or that cousin who comes around every now and then asking for money.

Julia Roberts plays opposite Streep as Weston’s eldest, and most disillusioned, daughter Barbara. We watch as Barbara transforms into her mother as her marriage simultaneously dissolves. Barbara exemplifies the unavoidable truth that no matter the imposed distance or amount of concentrated effort we eventually become our parents. Despite the cantankerous nature of the main characters, we in the audience feel their pain (both physical and emotional), loss, and genuinely want to see their problems resolved, yearning for them to be happy, which speaks to the acting ability and screen presence of Streep and Roberts. These women made their characters both scary and loveable.

August: Osage County has drug use, death, divorce, incest, and a little bit of everything, but is by no means a feel-good film. Supporting characters buoy the plot with some comedic relief: a vegetarian daughter and a flighty aunt got a few laughs, yet their stories all trail off towards disaster with the rest of the film.

Sitting in the movie theater was like sitting in a car driving on the interstate, possibly during a snowstorm, and you see a car slip on the fresh snow and spin into oncoming traffic, you watch helplessly as glass shatters, metal bends and airbags deploy. Watching August: Osage County was like watching a car crash or a sinking ship: there was nothing you could do but watch, pity the victims, and be thankful that this time it wasn’t you.

I give this film three out of five stars because the roles were well cast, well acted, and the characters were real and believable, but I deduct two stars because the plot was a touch monotone and despite the weight life can inflict upon us in the worst of times, this film lacked any hope or forward momentum. We were trapped right alongside Violet and Barbara in Osage County, left to endure the late summer heat of August without hope or relief.