Actors: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper
Directors: John Wells
Rated: R (Restricted)
Studio: ANCHOR BAY
DVD Release Date: April 8, 2014
Run Time: 120 minutes
Film: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 3.5 out of 5 stars
When I saw the cast for “August: Osage County”. I knew it just had to be amazing. First of all anything starring Meryl Streep gets my vote right away. Top that with ace performances from (BIG BREATH) Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Margo Martindale, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Misty Upham and Sam Shepard (WHEW). Truly outstanding cast with just perfect and they are same time mentally and physically exhausting. Besides have the worst Blu-ray cover art of the year (how about the rest of the cast), this film was easily one of the best of 2013. A must see!
Official Premise: Streep and Roberts star in the darkly hilarious and deeply touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives converge when a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional mother who raised them. August: Osage County is based on the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama-winning play by Tracy Letts, who is also known as Andrew Lockhart on Showtime’s Homeland. Director John Wells, best known as executive producer and showrunner of hit television series ER, The West Wing and Shameless, skillfully translates from stage to screen, leading an all-star cast.
Not sure why but we received a Blu-ray only disc to review with no DVD or Ultraviolet code. Now on Amazon.com they do have two versions for sale and in fact this non-combo pack is actually $5.00 more, which makes no sense to me. So if you buy this and I recommend it…be sure to get the combo pack. The 1080p really captures some of the beauty of Oklahoma, since most of the film takes place in Streep’s house. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 works perfect with the score and the non-dialogue stage play dialogue.
The special features are decent for this release. There is an audio commentary with Director John Wells and Cinematographer Adriano Goldman. I actually found this very interesting and a nice complement to the film. There are some deleted scenes as well with Commentary by Wells and Goldman. There is a nice behind-the-scenes look at “The Making of August: Osage County”. Lastly there is a Writing Featurette with Tracy Letts, looking into the stage play to the film translation.