Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post / Lifestyle

Movie review: August: Osage County

By Craig Nicholson
NZME. regionals·
11 Jan, 2014 05:00 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

August: Osage County is very much about the dialogue and the acting

August: Osage County is very much about the dialogue and the acting

Want to feel good about yourself? Step into the world of the Weston family and you are bound to.

August: Osage County tells the story of a family of strong-willed women who are drawn back to the family home in the United States Midwest by the disappearance, then death of the family patriarch.

And it draws on a star-studded cast to deliver many impressive performances: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Juliette Lewis and Benedict Cumberbatch are superb practitioners of their art and they don't let us down.

Violet Weston (Streep) is the dysfunctional matriarch of the family and uses a diet of pills and cigarettes to fight a bout of mouth cancer.

She lives a largely separate life from husband Beverly (Sam Shepard) but when he disappears, then is discovered to have committed suicide, the family returns to support their mother.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The arrival of Violet's three daughters and her sister, and their families, soon exposes regrets and recriminations from the dysfunctional lives they fled many years earlier.

Violet is far from the model mother, and anger and arguments dominate memories of the children's early years.

Eldest daughter Barbara (Julia Roberts) has her own problems in her married life and the journey home is not one she wants to make. But she knows her role in the family and the need to look out for her mother.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The death of Beverly serves to open many barely covered wounds that have festered for many years.

There are secrets that some know and that others are affected by.

What is true to say is that no one will leave this family gathering in the same mental space in which they arrived.

August: Osage Country is very much about the dialogue and the acting.

It is about people and emotions and skeletons that have been neatly hidden in the closet ... until now.

Watch the trailer here:

August: Osage County (M) 135 minutes
3 stars

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Lifestyle

Premium
Rotorua Daily Post

10 years with Tūhoe: The story behind Nelson photographer Tatsiana Chypsanava’s global award

Rotorua Daily Post

Bustles, ballgowns and bustiers: Why costumiers get bitten by the cosplay bug

Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Home & Lifestyle Show returns


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Lifestyle

Premium
Premium
10 years with Tūhoe: The story behind Nelson photographer Tatsiana Chypsanava’s global award
Rotorua Daily Post

10 years with Tūhoe: The story behind Nelson photographer Tatsiana Chypsanava’s global award

'It became a journey of self-discovery for me.'

19 Jul 12:00 AM
Bustles, ballgowns and bustiers: Why costumiers get bitten by the cosplay bug
Rotorua Daily Post

Bustles, ballgowns and bustiers: Why costumiers get bitten by the cosplay bug

25 Jun 05:00 AM
Rotorua Home & Lifestyle Show returns
Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Home & Lifestyle Show returns

20 Jun 04:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP