Review of August: Osage County (2013) by Eva C — 14 Apr 2014

I would have rewritten the play's plot to adapt it for film. Such a dysfunctional marriage would've ended in a murder-suicide since Beverly so easily could have smothered Violet & made it look like she OD'd, causing him to go off the deep end & drown himself. But that should've taken place AFTER he called his daughters back home for a familly reunion so they could see the drug-addled monster he had been living with after their daughters had left home. Violet's deep-seated inner demons would have been revealed as the reason she was such a mean monster.

The unraveling would've taken place in a more subtle way, with the daughters waking to a silent house after listening to the ugly vitriol spewed out by Violet at Beverly the night after the infamous dinner. They find their mother in bed, thinking she's asleep, but discover their father is gone & later realize their mother is dead. They call the sheriff, who believes Violet OD'd & sends deputies out to find Beverly, who is discovered drowned. Only after the funeral, when everyone but Barbara & Ivy have gone home, does the sheriff arrive at the house with the news they discovered Beverly had stayed at a motel & they found a confession-suicide note crumpled in the waste basket. The film ends with an auction of the house & everything in it, with the final scene of Barbara driving the pickup into the sunset - free at last. THAT plot would have been far more realistic & believable, at least for movie audiences who are far different folks than those who go to plays!