Its wonderful to see an all star adaptation of a Broadway hit and I'm sure this was a very satisfying night out at the theatre, with plenty of juicy roles and conflict and family drama and secrets coming out. On screen however it just comes across as a lot of actors yelling at each other, clearly wanting to speak in Southern accents.
There's a decent secret (a couple in love are actually brother and sister) but it's not that massive because the couple already think they're cousins. Meryl Streep gives a barnstorming performance as does Julia Roberts. There are two British actors pretending to be Americans, effectively enough, but none of them are as good as Chris Cooper - I know actors like to think they can play anything but in a heavy drama like this I think anything that chips away at the reality, even if only a little bit, hurt it.
It was just so much of it felt familiar - the sister who kept going from man to man, the dodgy boyfriend, the husband having an affair, the secret affair, the father figure, etc etc. It's not dopey comic book stuff so I suppose we should be grateful.
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