When we think of family, we rely upon our own experiences to help map out a character description of everyone involved. From our elders to the youngest grandchild, everyone contributes, everyone reacts, everyone delves their personality from one another over the course of their lives. I remember when I was 12 watching my family grieve over the loss of a family member, looking into one another’s eyes and wondering what might be in their heads at that precise moment – grief, desire, ambition, any number of immediate emotions. Years later, I experience the aging of our family and observe a matriarchal society.

In August: Osage County, Meryl Streep is that matriarch that designs the lives of everyone in an ironic family gathering. Her spirit and passion are a driving force as she has submitted to a life of distance and departure from anyone directly involved in her well-being, and throughout the film, we may recognize our own family patterns, but for some that is where the immediate comparisons might hopefully stop.

What happens throughout this movie is disturbing and unfulfilling. With every newly introduced character, every family member returning home, every exploit revealed in quiet conversation, we see what we have all described in our own family – the elephant in the room, the dysfunction we would all try to pretend away. However you may trust in the fact that this family may hopefully be unlike your own.

What is more important as the movie goer, is to perhaps recognize the superb performances. Along with Streep who is reckoning another Oscar, Julia Roberts certainly creates her most complete character to date. She is biting, forceful, introspective, and sadly torn throughout the film. In addition, Sam Shepard may very well play himself, and does so with delightful irony.

I walked away from this film wondering, thinking about my family, and hoping to find something of redeeming value when I walked out of the theatre. I hugged my wife as we walked to the car. That felt pretty good.