I don't necessarily agree with everything she said or did but I do get her. A glimpse into her childhood and development was required and provided to really understand her. It doesn't justify her altogether but I respect her mightily. She's a survivor and a truth teller however ugly that truth may be. It was refreshing to see that kind of an unapologetic woman be portrayed on film. And Streep nailed it.
shareWell, she had her moments...but so did my mom....then there's the time that she.... And the time she..... Lets not forget about the time she.... The list goes on and on.
shareEJverh, you're not the only one. Don't you remember mhearn's rhapsodies over Vi? (Shout-out to mhearn: is the NY winter finally over?)
Is Vi really a survivor, though? She's still physically alive, yes, but eaten up with bitterness and resentment. During the dinner, she dogmatically announces that nobody gets anything by her; after the drama-drenched Eat Your Fish scene, she blithely and confidently tells Barb that Ivy will be back. Yet Vi comes unhinged at the end when she realizes that Barb, for whom she had a special regard, has left her just like everyone else has.
I love this film for the drama and the great acting. I also love it for the family dynamics because I think it's important that everyone realize their family is going to let them down at some point/that it can't be everything to them/that no one they're related to is perfect. In fact, I'd say this realization is an important rite of passage. That's why Hamlet is such a great play. For those who grew up in really wigged-out families, though, August may be too close to home (literally and metaphorically).
Is Vi's 'truth-telling' everybody's truth or just hers? Is it the whole truth? Is telling it necessary (other than to provide dramatic conflict in the film)? Does telling her truth help her or anyone else in her family?
I think you know this, but since the 'net is so full of insults and one-upmanships, I just want to say that I'm now discussing the film with you, not arguing with you or saying you're wrong.
For sure, we agree that Streep nailed it.
WimmerFan, I get you.
I love discussions and exchanges of ideas. I get your points and Vi is a complex personality but most certainly a survivor imo. She knows and always had gotten her own way, making it through some very rotten upbringing. However, being a survivor isn't all together a noble trait: you learn to lie, manipulate, control and use whatever and whomever to keep going. And of course it comes with a price too. In the end, ironically, she still survives. Not in her preferable way but she found another person to use to make it: Johnna! Haha, Vi is a piece of work for sure but I still can't help but liking her. I would actually enjoy hanging out with her for a time. I love her sarcasm, 'truth telling' and would love to engage in a little back and forth with her and hearing her countless, interesting life stories and experiences.
shareI liked her too.the actors did so well.we all have family secrets i catch more,the more i watch it.does anyone know that i forgot name,sorry,that the boy n girl were half sister n brother.the way he yelled,your son,more than once,the kids didnt catch it.does he know all those years that its not his son,after 37 years of marriage.meryl did great.wow.why did julia roberts leave,question.was that her daughter.hope i made since.been sick.love all your postings.you opened my eyes to watching it again.3 rd time.so real.we all have been in situations like this,or close.the end i dont get.help.why leave her.
shareProbably. She had no redeeming qualities other than being pitiful.
shareI wouldn't say I 'liked' her but I definitely felt sorry for her. Her daughters could have been more sympathetic to her, especially Julia Roberts character. The woman was sick and I would have just ignored her. I have a mother who is just like violet but we all just ignore her. I come from a different culture though and my moms life and upbringing has been hard so I try to sympathize with that and ignore the rest.
shareViolet uses guilt to manipulate her children to do what they want. By staying there, they would have all been keeping her sick.
I feel bad for what she went through, and survived, but the bitterness was literally eating away at her in the form of cancer, anger and pill addiction. And it was beginning to affect Julia's character- she was becoming just like her.
Violet had probably become so mean in part from dealing with her own mother who was mean. It was a generation cycle in their family. If she wants to save the relationship she has with her own daughter, and her own sense of self, she had to leave.
Little girls shouldn't look for four leaf clovers!
I had mixed feelings about Vi - Yes, she was a drug addled, abusive, manipulative, self-serving pain the the ass.
But the claw hammer dinner story and the Christmas Shoes story helps us understand she didn't necessarily get to those places without help from her evil mother.
So I became sympathetic, to a point, when it was revealed that Vi was not given a good start...and, in the Plains...throwing pills at a problem is far more acceptable than actually seeing a shrink. (At least in the part of the plains I grew up in!) So understanding why she was the way she was made it less easy to view her as less a monster, and more a deeply flawed human being incapable of taking care of those flaws at her age.