I am not the target audience for this movie. That became apparent about 20 minutes in, but I rode my way out. It's a heavy drama mostly about the relationships between a mother and her daughters. I understand that it was originally a play that has been adapted into a movie; honestly, I wouldn't have guessed. I remember watching 12 Angry Men and thinking that it was definitely a play, and they hadn't even changed the blocking when they made it a movie.
Let's start with the obvious: Meryl Streep plays the overbearing, self-righteous, self-centered mother almost too well. The audience goes through bouts of sympathy, revulsion, disdain, empathy, and about a dozen other reactions to her circumstances and manipulations. She's an inherently tragic character, as she was recently diagnosed with cancer, is a drug addict (prescription), and fairly quickly into the movie loses her husband.
Margo Martindale (who I last saw as Mags on Justified) and Chris Cooper are Meryl's sister and brother in law. Margo's character is a friendlier, more toned-down version of Meryl's, but she has her own venom and manipulations lying underneath. Essentially, the somewhat poisonous nature of the family environment is what is dissected throughout this movie. Everyone has their problems, and everyone is contributing to the perpetuation of the family cultural negativity. Margo and Chris' son is played by the popular and charismatic Benedict Cumberbatch. I'm not sure why so many Americans (specifically Southern Americans) are played by British or Australian actors these days, but I think it was a good thing that Benedict didn't have too many lines to get across in his fake Southern accent.
Julianne Nicholson is the daughter who is still helping her mother out. She recognizes the horrible toxicity of the interactions with her mother, but she is the dreamer of the bunch, and she imagines a world that she will go to where she doesn't have to deal with any of it. Her character is not supposed to be particularly outgoing, and she plays her character well. In fact, I would say that each actor plays their character very well. That is why I would have originally said that this would be a classic Lifetime movie, but the caliber of acting is well beyond anything I have seen on that channel.
Juliette Lewis is the well-to-do sister who seems to glide from one husband to the next, and she doesn't make good choices about them one way or another. Her character is not as well developed at the rest of them, and she has fewer lines and less screen time. You can tell she has less screen time, as she talks near constantly while on screen.
Julia Roberts, and her estranged husband played by Ewan McGregor, is really the main character in this story. While the events would all conspire to make Meryl the focal point of the story, we see most of it through Julia's eyes. She's clearly under a lot of stress, and she is at the breaking point through most of the film. As usual, she does an excellent job with her role.
Direction was very good
Acting was excellent
Story was compelling
Dialog was very good
4.25/5