August: Osage County 2013

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Among Wells' actors, six have earned Oscars or Oscar nominations, and most of the others deserved to somewhere along the line. As a company, they're swell here. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: There's great acting in every frame, but by the end of the ordeal, the viewer may be too exhausted to care. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The movie also gives us a chance to see Ms. Roberts in action, and she's marvelous, too, in an austere style that perfectly complements Ms. Streep's volcanism. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Watching it, you may feel like slipping out of the room, closing the door quietly behind you. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: This two-ton prestige pic won't win the hearts of highbrow critics or those averse to door-slamming, plate-smashing, top-of-the-lungs histrionics, but as a faithful filmed record of Letts' play, one could have scarcely hoped for better. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, AV Club: Wells' heavy-handed direction and a bizarrely sappy score by Gustavo Santaolalla flatten much of the humor and spikiness; the pace seems to slow just as the no-exit tension should kick in. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: These are tremendous actors, and maybe it all worked better on the stage. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: This is one of the meatiest roles Roberts has had in a good long time, and she handles it with an admirable lack of vanity. Gone is that high-wattage Roberts smile. Barbara is weary, bitter, and, at times, shrewish. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Not a great movie but a fine guilty pleasure of acting excess. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The cloistered farmhouse setting, the surfeit of familiar faces, and the furious emotional pitch all contribute to the stifling sense of claustrophobia that's so key to Letts's writing. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: There are things to enjoy in "August: Osage County," mainly around the edges. But there's a serious case of miscasting at the center. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Streep's performance has been criticized for being too theatrical, but that's off the mark: The character she's playing is supposed to be theatrical. She's a woman playing a part -- the ravaged matriarch. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Letts loves manic people, twisted situations and barbed lines that cut with glee and he's disturbingly good at delivering all three. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: When a movie is based on a celebrated play, the first question to ask is, Does it play? In the case of August: Osage County... the answer is yes. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: There are so many reveals, twists and turns that they all end up feeling desperate. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Osage County boils, then burns. Wells's film doesn't hold together as incriminatingly as the play does. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: An entertaining adaptation, delivering flavorful rewards in some sharp supporting turns that flank the central mother-daughter adversaries. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: I have to confess that (a) I never saw this Pulitzer Prize-winning vehicle by Tracy Letts when it was on stage and (b) nothing about this film version makes me regret that choice. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: Cluttering this adaptation with so many identifiable actors and zooming in on them for Nora Desmond-like close-ups detracts from Letts' wounding blitz of sentences. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: August: Osage County is easier to watch on screen, and maybe for that we should be grateful. But there's also something to be said for sitting shell-shocked afterward, shaken and relieved to be free from witnessing more of this family's downfall. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: A two-hour onslaught of extreme profanity, vicious insults and verbal violence ... Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The director John Wells's adaptation of Tracy Letts's play sits awkwardly on the screen. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There's quite a bit to enjoy here, particularly for fans of hurtful, overheated family melodrama. And of nasty sharp-tongued comedy as cold as ice, and black as tar. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: Everyone here has pain, everyone has secrets, and while we join these characters for a short time, it's easy to see that the cycles of lies, distrust, and abuse go back for generations ... Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: If you embrace the overkill, you'll enjoy it. But if extravagance isn't your thing, move swiftly on to something lighter and more digestible. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It is possible that Mr. Wells has simply mishandled the material, riding roughshod over subtleties and muffling bravura moments. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: Offers a nightmare vision of what happens when gaudy histrionics poison a powerhouse ensemble. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: It is Roberts who makes August: Osage County watchable, and more: As Barbara, the actress' wariness and weariness, her caustic humor - deployed to hide a deep sadness - all ring true. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: August: Osage County is all about the acting. That makes sense because the storyline doesn't offer much that could be considered new or remarkable. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: A sometimes wickedly funny but ultimately sour, loud, draining tale of one of the most dysfunctional families in modern American drama. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The problem was that director John Wells did not understand the play, or at the very least, he did not make his actors understand the play, even at its most basic level. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: August: Osage County is a mess, an overcooked movie-star stew that never quite coheres into a movie. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film can't transcend its theatrical, non-naturalistic roots. An experience that should be shattering is merely battering. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: For those who appreciate fiery dialogue delivered by fine actors, "August: Osage County" is heaven-sent. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Although a couple of performances here may earn Oscar nominations, by the time you've sat through the wreckage, you're left with the sense that this really must have worked better onstage. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: With a talent roster this large and a script this pointed, there's not much more director Wells can do than get out of the way - and indeed, that's what he does. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: It's up to this generation's greatest screen actress to find the honesty and the power amongst all the showboating: I'm referring, of course, to Margo Martindale. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: This star-studded loopy melodrama is brash, foul-mouthed, self-consciously offensive, intermittently insightful and has a gaping hole where its heart should be. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: The bloom is a bit off the rose with this starry, streamlined adaptation of Tracy Letts's Tony- and Pulitzer-feted 2007 play. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The dialogue is so sharply written and the sniping so deftly performed that it can be entertaining, though challenging to endure. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: August: Osage County, however, bitterly funny in some places and numbingly earnest in others, is just too much Streep. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: In the all-star movie adaptation of August: Osage County, another play that holds the stage with fang and claw feels less momentous onscreen. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: By the time the movie's climax comes round, the combined fate of this trio is heartbreakingly sad. Read more