Dysfunction. Anger. Pain. Secrets. And, last, but not least, family.

Sounds like a light-hearted movie, right?

Despite some of the difficult topics that are dealt with in the film, seeing ‘August: Osage County’ provided me with a totally new outlook on movies in the modern day. It was a both a comedy and realistic drama that put viewers face-to-face with the gritty, less-pretty parts of life, and showed how messed up peoples lives can truly be.

The story begins with a family whose father goes missing, and the three estranged daughters come back to Oklahoma to be there for their harsh mother who was recently diagnosed with mouth cancer. Meryl Streep stars as the mother of the family who is suffering from mouth cancer and is also battling a severe drug problem. Julia Roberts, who is another well known actor, plays the role of the oldest sister who is most estranged with the family and had moved to Colorado with her husband and daughter. The father’s disappearance was not a new issue for the family to deal with, but this time was different when they learn of his apparent suicide.  The aftermath of learning this brings all their pain and heartache from the past to the present.

The acting done by Meryl Streep is one that gave me goosebumps at every scene. She did a tremendous job playing the mother of the family, Violet Weston, who smoked her entire life and used pills to cope with not only the pain for her cancer but from the pain in her heart. She clearly shows the audience the type of character that says whatever she feels to her family even if it breaks their hearts. The oldest daughter, Barbara Weston, portrayed by Julia Roberts and she clearly demonstrates the role of someone who shows harsh love. Her character was one that carried the pain from her entire family, but somehow had to pull it together and be strong for everyone around her. Another character that seemed to have a major part in this crazy movie was young and well known actor Abigail Breslin, who plays the 14-year-old daughter of Roberts’ character. She was an important character because she showed the audience the perspective of that from a teenager growing up in this environment. She captured the emotionally-charged nature of this age group and just how easily they can be affected by the things happening around them.

From my perspective, this movie was moving and every scene had something that would change your opinion about each character. At the beginning of the movie, it was a little boring for my taste and I was afraid that it would stay that way, but boy was I wrong. After the funeral of the father, the audience really got to see the family’s good and bad qualities. Although this story was meant to send a serious message, they did a great job throwing in tons of humor to lighten the situations. One hilarious scene was when Julia Roberts along with Meryl Streep and the middle sister were sitting at the dinner table and all the sudden everyone starts to break dishes while laughing. A downfall that this movie had would be that it didn’t a clear resolution. It kind of left the me hanging on what happens with the family and the members in it.

The message that I got from watching this movie was that every family has their own problems along with their own way of dealing with them. ‘August: Osage County’ showed that whatever happened in the past, family is everything and you love them indefinitely.

When recommending this movie, I would suggest this movie to people above the age of 13 and to people that are okay with real life situations involving crude language and some drug use. I would not recommend seeing this movie with young children because of the adult actions that it involves.

I give this movie 9 out of 10 Devils.