Not believable

Yeah, rich people don't have problems.

That’s a very interesting mixture of poetry and meanness.

I know...Ozzie and Harriet were the real "WASP Family"!

Firstly, how do you know they act like this all the time? We only see them for a few hours during a family conflict. Secondly with the events occurring in these people's lives, you wouldn't exactly expect them to be cheery. Brick's best friend just committed suicide after confessing to sleeping with his wife, as a result of which he has quit his job and become an alcoholic. Meanwhile he is completely disillusioned with his bourgeois upbringing and the inauthenticity that seem an essential component in that life. Meanwhile the controlling family patriarch is dying and his entire empire is on the verge of collapse, with all of it about to fall into the hands of his disillusioned son rather than the one who, for all his faults, has spent his entire life trying to win his father's respect and earn his inherited title. The play is about a family conflict in which all the tensions are brought to the surface, some are specific such as those just mentioned. Others are more general, all the characters are suffocated by their expected roles in upper class 1950's society, especially the women who are forced to act falsely and to manipulate men as the only way of taking any control over their lives. Finally as this is an adaptation of a play it is generally wrong to think of it in terms of realism, these kind of scenes are about uncovering layers of emotions and anguish, delivered through smart writing and good delivery. To look for absolute realism is a mistake.

Rich people certainly have their share of problems – and I would gladly trade mine for theirs – but the constant speechifying, phony Southern accents and scenery chewing took this down a few notches for me. 7/10 stars.