August: Osage County

A sometimes wickedly funny but ultimately sour, loud, draining tale of one of the most dysfunctional families in modern American drama.

This star-studded loopy melodrama is brash, foul-mouthed, self-consciously offensive, intermittently insightful and has a gaping hole where its heart should be.

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.

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.

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.

The A-list cast makes it a good watch, and the impressive production design makes for a suitable-enough stage replacement.

Problem is, with about ten families' worth of dysfunction packed in, and no happy resolution, what kind of a cinematic experience is it? The fingernails-on-a-blackboard kind.

This cast and crew is so well suited to bring this story to life that it's nearly serendipitous, and the film will play like catnip to fans of the play.

Every ill-considered editing choice here bears the sticky fingerprints of statuette-grubbing producer Harvey Weinstein, attempting to tame this rough material for mass consumption by Oscar voters.

Sure to be divisive, "August: Osage County" is tenacious and beautifully constructed. Soulful and unafraid to show the gritty and ugly of the American family,

Nothing makes you feel better about your dysfunctional family at the holidays than watching a messed-up clan unravel on screen, only armed with better zingers and prettier faces. That describes this adaptation of Tracy Letts's star-studded drama.