I read an article-several articles, in fact, about the call to end the trope of strong women and instead make films about complicated women. Women who exhibit behaviors that are more expressive of the trials and tribulations of a three dimensional character. As in, having less strong female characters who only express the traditionally masculine traits of their male counterparts, that somehow legitimize their behavior as “girl power” and more anti-hero women who display traits of weakness, selfishness, addiction-of a certain darkness that embodies a woman from a rough childhood, with parents as mean and vicious as any.
Women’s lives are fraught with different color stains that mark their past and dictate a future in a world run almost exclusively by men. We hardly see, on screen, the cruel coping mechanism of love, loss, and trauma that inflicts families, and keeps secret all those mistakes made. Just recently I had the pleasure of seeing one of the greatest actress of all time, Meryl Streep, epitomize all that I have described and more in her role of matriarch Violet Weston in August: Osage County. I had no expectations of the film going in. I had no idea it was a stage play until after I saw the film, and so with basically a empty canvas, my mind began painting the artistic flow of genuinely realistic portrayal of complicated women.
Now, of course I must mention, before I go any further, that I am aware that the cast is entirely white apart from Johnna the caregiver, who is Native American. Also, I am aware that the setting of the film and play is set in Oklahoma, which is not a complete and accurate depiction of all women’s lives around the globe. Having said that, what is refreshing about this film is that we get to see a film lead by females and whose stories are as different as they are complicated. Their strength is not in how they perpetuate violent acts, but in how they learn to cope with it. Each woman within the film has had some experience with violence, abuse, addiction beauty myth, stereotypes that which have come to define their multi-character arcs.
As the prime example, Violet, played by Meryl Streep, is dying of cancer, and who is addicted to prescription drugs that cause her to act vile an more erratically. She snaps at family members, making rude remarks etc. Essentially, she is the character you love to hate, but despite her cruel and callous demeanor, you come to find out, in an amazing monologue, how she came to be the way she is. In other words, her behavior is systemic and rooted in a dark past, her childhood. We don’t get to see it, but we feel it through the powerful performances. Similarly, with Julia Roberts, who plays Violet’s daughter, Barbra, we begin to see the parallels of her journey align with that of her mothers; so much so that she becomes her mother in the end.
Ivy Weston and Karen Weston, the two other daughters of Violet are also very fascinating and complicated characters. Both are women who, in search of love, come to sacrifice a part of themselves in ways I believe many women do when their backs are placed against the wall. There is a great scene with Juliette Lewis, who plays Karen, that exemplifies the notion of blurred lines. Ivy, herself, faces an existential truth that shatters her whole world just as she has found what she believes his her happily ever after. However, no other woman demonstrates complicated more than Violet’s sister, Mattie Fae. One mistake leads to a not so sly secret that plays a crucial part in the story.
In the end, and what an end, nothing is resolved, just as it is in real life. August: Osage Country not only proves that a female lead film can entertain, but that it can be strong even when its characters are weak and flawed. The performances all were more than you can ask for; it pulled at my heart, it made me laugh, it made me feel the pain that on some level I could relate to, and a female moviegoer, it is nice to see women on screen with messy lives that are not hypersexualized, but more so complicated and tragically flawed like the rest of us.
I give this film a 2 out of 3 on the Bechdel test. Even though there are more than two women in the film, and who talk to each other, some of what is discussed does center around men, and though most of the film explores the complicated relationships between a mother and her daughters and their lives, men do play a role (which does not necessarily mean it is a bad thing, but more just a fact) I still recommended this film and accept it as one of the very few films in which truly allows female characters on screen to have autonomy.
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