August: Osage County and its Effects on my Mind

August: Osage County is definitely a movie where you sit there and think that despite your insomnia and job at McDonald's, there are worse things in life that could happen to you such as sleeping with who you thought was your first cousin who actually turned out to be your brother. But please do not read on if you would like to save yourself more spoilers.

The powerful themes in the movie lift your soul from your body and take it on a rapid downhill journey where the bad things that can possibly happen to someone just get worse. There are no themes stronger than the combination of life, death and incest, betrayal and loss and lust, and this movie holds all of them and more. Upon viewing it, I have felt the need to clutch everyone and everything dear to me tightly in the very two palms of my hands, and squeeze them until the colour runs out of them.

I felt that I could easily connect with every character in the film. The depiction of their personalities was absolutely sensational and realistic. From the powerful whirlwind of a personality named Violet Weston comes the equally as strong Barbara, the so-called vivacious Karen, the elusive and confused Ivy, all adored by the deserted Beverly. Set in Violet and Beverly’s house, the movie follows the portrayal of a family and their direct relatives when Beverly allegedly commits suicide. Violet, affected by mouth cancer and a large variety of drugs that she abuses with cancer as her reasoning, undergoes a painstaking mental journey as she attempts to spin webs to maintain her relationships with her daughters and sisters, only to watch them all find a way out and slither well and truly away from her fragile reach.

The movie made me think – what does it take to push one off the edge, mentally? How would I act in this situation? Would I be able to tolerate the pressures faced? Most importantly, why am I not enjoying my own life and living to my fullest potential before dismay of this sort charges in and tears me away from all of the possibilities I could achieve? I do not know the answer to that question, but I do know that this film has awoken the need to live, to exist, to be.

It is not our situation that controls us, it is us who control them. We are the bearers of the burdens of situations, yes, however we can also access the controls to them. We can, if we set our minds to it, stand tall in the hours that exist to incinerate us. Most people do not accept this because it is easier to give up on something than to try it. Circumstances can also act as hurdles to our success however we can overcome them too – take Ivy, for example, having held a secret sexual relationship with Little Charles, the person she thought to be her first cousin, she utterly fell apart when she was told that he was really her brother. Instead of thinking the situation over and solving it, she overreacted and drove away, assumingly to her suicide too – this is unclear, but it is what I predict from her crazy reaction.

Situations are better when the attempt to handle them is made. Rather than storm off in a fury of emotions and disbelief, Ivy should have sought other ways to go about learning that she has been performing incest – one upside is, well, it is unintentional incest from both parties – neither one of them knew that they were brother and sister, and she is not pregnant. Ivy could not see this perspective because of her utter fury at the time.

What I am trying to say is, though, that despite all the bad things that could happen to you, you must weigh your problems out and come to the realisation that something worse could have happened, and that your problem can, in one way or another, be solved. Something can always be done, compromise exists but you have to shy away from circumstance to approach it. And when you approach it, you must do so wearing the shiniest of knightly armour – nobody and nothing can break through this armour, you are strong.

Do not be the Beverly or Ivy in your situations. Be the Barbara, or if you really want a mental trip, be the Violet. Be positively proactive. And watch August: Osage County, because the way it has altered my thought process will also benefit you. All of the actors involved present these harrowing themes so well that you will be a fool to miss it.