Running time: 116 minutes
Starring: Joseph Cross, Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Alec Baldwin, Evan Rachel Wood, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jill Clayburgh
Rating 5 out of 10
Adapting a book for the screen is a precarious business. What works on the page doesn't always work visually. Running With Scissors, Augusten Burroughs' hilarious and moving autobiographical account of his bizarrely dysfunctional upbringing, is a black comedy. Here though first time director Ryan Murphy, who also wrote the screenplay, has eliminated so much of Burroughs' sardonic wit that what is left is just black. Spending two hours in the presence of a collection of psychotically deranged misfits is more depressing than amusing.
Anyone whoever thought they had an unusual childhood would have a hard time measuring up their life against that of Burroughs. When speculating on where to begin telling his story, Burroughs - as played by Joseph Cross - declares, 'It doesn't matter where I start, you wouldn't believe me anyway.' Certainly being given away by his mother to her therapist is hard to comprehend.
As is much of what follows. If it was a work of fiction, most would dismiss it on the grounds of being incredulous. Royal Tenenbaum and his eccentric brood are perhaps the closest example of the type of colourfully crazy family Augusten finds himself adopted by. And that is after being raised by a narcissistic mother Deirdre (Annette Bening) who is convinced she's god's gift to poetry and angry that the literary world doesn't share her opinion. 'Your mother was meant to be a very famous women,' she tells the young Augusten.
'Why can't we just be a normal family,' Augusten cries out following yet another row between his highly combustible parents. Deirdre and Norman (Alec Baldwin) belatedly seek the help of a therapist Dr Finch (Brian Cox), whose extreme methods, which involve the couple attending therapy for five hours a day, finally prompt Norman to leave home for good. Unable to cope, Deirdre comes under the spell of the Svengali-like Finch and ships Augusten off to stay with the mad doctor and his eccentric family, wife Agnes (Liz Clayburgh) and two daughters, Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood).
It's hard not to feel for young Augusten who is trying desperately to retain his sanity while all around have clearly lost theirs. The fact that he's also gay certainly doesn't make his life any easier as the 15 year-old embarks on a relationship with the 35 year-old schizophrenic Bookman (Joseph Fiennes).
The strong cast all do a good job of finding the realness in their characters who appear, for the most part, to be well detached from reality. Annette Bening in particular turns in a forceful performance as the complex and obsessive Deirdre. Ultimately though Running With Scissors focuses too much on the extraordinary, epitomized by Dr Finch's epiphanic ablution - 'My turd is a direct communication from the Holy Father.' Instead of finding the heart of Burroughs' story, Murphy took the easiest and more obvious option and focused on the insanity.
Kevin Murphy
Anyone whoever thought they had an unusual childhood would have a hard time measuring up their life against that of Burroughs. When speculating on where to begin telling his story, Burroughs - as played by Joseph Cross - declares, 'It doesn't matter where I start, you wouldn't believe me anyway.' Certainly being given away by his mother to her therapist is hard to comprehend.
As is much of what follows. If it was a work of fiction, most would dismiss it on the grounds of being incredulous. Royal Tenenbaum and his eccentric brood are perhaps the closest example of the type of colourfully crazy family Augusten finds himself adopted by. And that is after being raised by a narcissistic mother Deirdre (Annette Bening) who is convinced she's god's gift to poetry and angry that the literary world doesn't share her opinion. 'Your mother was meant to be a very famous women,' she tells the young Augusten.
'Why can't we just be a normal family,' Augusten cries out following yet another row between his highly combustible parents. Deirdre and Norman (Alec Baldwin) belatedly seek the help of a therapist Dr Finch (Brian Cox), whose extreme methods, which involve the couple attending therapy for five hours a day, finally prompt Norman to leave home for good. Unable to cope, Deirdre comes under the spell of the Svengali-like Finch and ships Augusten off to stay with the mad doctor and his eccentric family, wife Agnes (Liz Clayburgh) and two daughters, Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood).
It's hard not to feel for young Augusten who is trying desperately to retain his sanity while all around have clearly lost theirs. The fact that he's also gay certainly doesn't make his life any easier as the 15 year-old embarks on a relationship with the 35 year-old schizophrenic Bookman (Joseph Fiennes).
The strong cast all do a good job of finding the realness in their characters who appear, for the most part, to be well detached from reality. Annette Bening in particular turns in a forceful performance as the complex and obsessive Deirdre. Ultimately though Running With Scissors focuses too much on the extraordinary, epitomized by Dr Finch's epiphanic ablution - 'My turd is a direct communication from the Holy Father.' Instead of finding the heart of Burroughs' story, Murphy took the easiest and more obvious option and focused on the insanity.
Kevin Murphy
