“August” tells the story of Tom (Josh Hartnett) and Joshua Sterling (Adam Scott), two brothers living in New York City whose fledgling technology startup Landshark sits high atop the “dot.com bubble” of the late nineties.
The company’s inflated business models have created an artificial demand for a product that has no viable financial future and explores the collapse of the dream that the Sterling brothers shared over a lonely pinball machine in a local strip club.
During Landshark’s quick rise to success, Tom has become a non-stop partier and eccentric public relations mogul who spews spin about his company with the fervor expected of a hot young entrepreneur. Unfortunately, Tom soon realizes that talk only goes so far, and must reevaluate the difference between being successful and being happy.
Director Austin Chick, whose previous film “XX/XY” explored the volatile nature of relationships, seems to be out of his element with “August”. The dry nature of the subject matter, which hovers between realism and melodrama, limits the amount of room characters have to breathe and grow.
Rodman and Chick do attempt to infuse energy into the scripted bonds between the characters, but the work is consistently foiled by the stale acting, which makes conversations between close friends and family feel more like two acquaintances meeting randomly in line at an ATM.
Sarrah (Naomie Harris), Tom’s former flame, returns in the middle of the crisis with little warning, and the couple’s past is left in the dark during the entirety of the movie. A bit of subtle exposition, or even flashbacks, would’ve done wonders to instill some magic between the Tom and Sarrah.
Adam Scott pulls out the best performance of the bunch as the nerdy, responsible Joseph. His tirades against his brother translate well and seem realistic. Sadly, Scott isn’t given nearly enough screen time to flex his acting muscles and the film is worse for that.
“August” is also so full of business jargon that anyone who isn’t familiar with the intricacies of business and the universe of the stock market will feel lost around halfway through the film.
This is where the major flaw of “August”, a severe lack of identity, becomes its downfall. The writers seem unsure whether the movie should be a realistic period piece or an emotional relationship yarn.
Honestly, it’s hard to imagine either of those ideas resulting in anything better than the current film, but at least the viewer could avoid the confusion of being tugged back and forth.
Despite clocking in at a breezy 88 minutes, “August” feels tired long before the credits roll. The relationships between the characters, which should be the highlight of a film like this, feel lazy and false.
The realistic circumstances presented by the plot do nothing to spark interest and the writing falls into the same trap. As a period piece, “August” is an interesting look into the struggles of e-commerce, but as a film, it falls flat on its face.
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