AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY is a Midwestern melodrama, directed by John Wells, adapted for the big screen by the playwright Tracy Letts.

Wells’s film covers the lives of strong-willed women and their tag-along men. Their lives have diverged but are brought back together by a family crisis,  which sees them return to their family home and their cranky, drug-addicted matriarch (Meryl Streep).

Their alcoholic father has gone missing. They later learn he has drowned himself. The three sisters have become estranged from their drug addicted mother, who now has mouth cancer, and thus access to more drugs. The entire family gathers for an awkward funeral dinner. The vicious conversation is orchestrated by the mother, as she engages in “truth telling”.

Whilst most of the venom is verbal, there is one shocking physical fight on the floor between the eldest favourite daughter (Julia Roberts) and her dysfunctional mother (Meryl Streep)

The sisters’ stories of divorce; one sister’s engagement to a sleazy, child preying, many-times married businessman; and love and incest bubble to the surface of this steaming cauldron.

Strong acting from Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, supported by a very competent ensemble of actors makes this a satisfying film. The weakest part was the score, but it did not detract from or interfere with the overall satisfaction.

A feisty foray into a dysfunctional female-dominated family.