SINGAPORE - What do you get when you put Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, Juliette Lewis, Julianne Nicholson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dermot Mulroney and Abigail Breslin in a movie adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play?

A crowded room overflowing with performance, talent, and experience, that’s what.

Befitting its stage origins, all the acting action explodes inside the Oklahoma home of poet Beverley Weston (Sam Shepard) and his wife Violet (Streep), a prescription-drug addict with mouth cancer and the propensity to be painfully combative and horribly unpleasant. We are introduced to their dysfunctional brood when they all show up for Weston’s funeral and discover why Violet’s daughters Barbara (Roberts), Ivy (Nicholson) and Karen (Lewis) are all as damaged as they are.

With so many family secrets, lies and resentment all suddenly hot-bedded under one roof, it’s no wonder the clan are all at each other’s throats. Amidst the screaming and yelling, we’re treated to an acting master-class of spiteful family dysfunction and melodrama. But therein lies the problem: The illustrious cast can’t stop playing it to the last row.

A more assured director would have kept the showboating in check. Unfortunately, John Wells seemed too star-struck with his actors to do so. (Although, you’d find yourself star-struck, too, watching so many talented people hilariously go at it with gusto. The only problem is that the journey can get exhausting and all that screaming nastiness will eventually wear thin. Your breaking point depends entirely on your tolerance for familial bitterness - or if you think the creme de la creme gathering of actors is too much of a good thing.

That said, for every bit of bombast and pomp, it is undoubtedly a formidable acting showcase that is delivered with sincere honesty. For the actress who can do no wrong in my book, Streep acts up her usual scenery-chewing fiery storm (she got her Best Actress Oscar nomination, didn’t she?). But it is Hollywood sweetheart Roberts, who hasn’t been this good in so long, that surprises with her performance and truly deserves her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination as Violet’s oldest daughter.

(NC16, 130mins)