Running with Scissors (2006)

Quirky gay kid fears his boozer dad and admires his arty mom... until he hits the age of reason and begins to see his life for what it really is: a surprise. At age 14 the protagonist begins dating a 35-year old man who becomes his step-brother -- one of many oddly engaging scenarios in this film which is based on an allegedly true memoir. Trouble is, for all its star-power and meticulous set design, the story lags and drags, becoming more about the memoirist's mother than about the lead character, who gets eclipsed by the zany shuffling of too many eccentric weirdos. As for being funny, it has its moments, but often the actors seem to be trying too hard to make the audience laugh. Kudos to all people involved for taking the story so seriously. And shame on whoever allowed this movie to over-ripen. Trimming 20 minutes from its running time could've probably salvaged it from the depths of mediocrity.

It is possible that I lack the intellectual understanding to appreciate this movie, but really it would be more entertaining to watch a 2 hour maintenance video of ant-farms than watching this one. Every one is gay or masturbates with pride all over their children. This movie embarrasses the field of psychology and turns the idea of poetry and artistry into angry craziness with no regard for others. Watching this you will feel all psychologists are pedophiles and all women artists are Lesbians who have gay sons, who love to destroy marriages and make drama when they don't get the attention they want. If you are considering watching this because you have nothing else better in your life, I suggest you hold off and just consider suicide, because if your not there already, this movie will get you to it.

The source material is a darkly funny, but insightful memoir about a troubled childhood, and mental illness. When his parents divorce, Augusten Burroughs is sent to live with his mother's therapist and eccentric family. The action revolves around Augusten growing up in the house and his crumbling relationship with his mother. The movie, produced, written, and directed by Ryan Murphy, has some excellent performances and moments that ring extremely true. But while certainly not horrible or unwatchable, it does not do the memoir full justice. Murphy's writing and direction tend to under serve the emotional undercurrents and overplay the comedic surface. Resulting is a movie that is stuck between dark comedy and intense drama without a real blending of either. As Augusten's mentally ailing mother Dierdre, Anette Bening nails it. So vivid is both the emotional and physical deterioration of her character, to which Bening adds to her slimly written arc. Also impressive is Jill Claybourgh. She plays Dr. Finch's wife, turning in a remarkably layered performance in a minor role. Evan Rachel wood gives her part equal parts spunk and weight, giving the third stand-out performance. The rest of the cast all range from serviceable (Gwenyth Paltrow in a thankless role) to good (Alec Baldwin). As Augusten himself, Joseph Cross is great, but his character becomes more of a spectator, to which any actor would have trouble working with.If Murphy had just given his vision a bit more development, I think this one really could have been something wonderful - a darkly comic, but deeply felt film about the trouble of growing up amongst dysfunction - you can sense the faithful intent in everything. Instead, crucial emotional scenes get streamlined into montages set to the pop hits of the period -1970's, characters are left underdeveloped, leaving the story to not really go anywhere. It's entertaining enough at the funny parts, and Bening is really excellent, but there's not much else to grasp onto.

Mr Augusten Burroughs has used his experience and obvious talent to capitalise and reinvent what to him must have been hard to bare at the times. His attention to detail and love of camp has transformed horror to humour, real people into playthings. That no doubt was a cathartic exercise when he wrote Running With Scissors. Meanwhile he has had a wonderful cast to further reinvent his memoir and clearly a sympathetic director to transform this never a dull moment story into film. Whether this has fully worked is open to debate. I think like many commentators here I have my reservations preferring the serious to the comedy when the two seemed to split away from each other especially towards the latter part of the film. Certainly the actors were doing their thing on a totally serious note while the score was off somewhere else in dreadful song land. A silly last minute cop out which makes me wonder what the cast thought too when they saw the final cut. Did boy Burroughs or ma Burroughs know what music they were acting to as they freaked out? See what I mean?Humour is the best way to survive a crisis and three cheers for Mr Burroughs for being able to reinvent his past with the mixture of horror and camp that this film attempts so well and much like the book I understand. Its a daunting task. How many of us could do such a thing unless we had the art to do so? And that's presumably the point here. Art. Writing. Expressing the inner trapped victim. A play within a play. That sort of thing.His story of reinvention and the rewrite of his childhood exposes the bogus science called psychiatry which the human race has too much respect for in my opinion, a world run for the most part by the authorities and the drug companies and this point comes over well in the film I thought...with humour of course.I enjoyed the reference to Shock Corridor. Where rain falls in Shock Corridor snow falls on Augustin's mother. It was also another red herring but hey ho.That real feeling was overdubbed with the likes of Elton John upset me. In fact the score on the whole threatened to sink it. Not necessary. Tired devise.If we are to take anything seriously we have to remove the mask of humour which lies thinly on this production. Depending on your mood, you will either keep nervously smiling with its author or take it to task having walked out maybe too. I stayed the whole distance and give a higher mark here mainly for the successful efforts of its very fine actors.