“Running With Scissors” (TriStar Pictures)
Dysfunctional To the Extreme
Augusten Burroughs wrote a memoir of his growing up years titled RUNNING WITH SCISSORS. This book was a national best seller and now has been turned into a motion picture directed by Ryan “Nip/Tuck” Murphy. What was funny and quirky in the book has become bizarre and tragic in the film. Burroughs’ family comes off as totally dysfunctional and the saga of his childhood is depressing and horrifying.
Young Augusten (Joseph Cross) has the bad fortune to be born to a couple who are slowly going downhill emotionally. His father Norman (Alec Baldwin) is an aloof alcoholic, while his mother Deirdre (Annete Bening) is an aspiring poet with multi-emotional problems. Deirdre begins seeing a psychologist named Dr. Finch (Brian Cox). He indulges Deirdre’s pretentions of glory and convinces her that marriage is stifling her creative output.
When his parents divorce Deirdre gets custody of Augusten, but soon she is convinced that he would be better off living with the Finch family. So she gives him to them. This family includes Dr. Finch, his wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh), his oldest daughter Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow), and his youngest daughter Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood). Each of these people has some sort of character/personality disorder. So much so that it seems Augusten has ended up in a house of horrors.
Later while still in his early teens Augusten takes up with an older patient of Dr. Finch’s named Neil (Joseph Fiennes). They begin a sexual relationship even though Augusten is a minor. Dr. Finch turns a blind eye to it all and no one is the wiser. The fact this is a form of rape is totally ignored.
Everything about this movie is either grotesque, horrific, and/or depressing. It is painful to see how one young boy can be totally ignored by the people who should be there to care for him. The fact Augusten survived is amazing. The fact he appears today to be relatively sane is nothing short of a miracle.
As Deirdre, Annete Bening is excellent. But her performance raises the question similar to the one about if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound Well if an actress gives a totally excellent performance in a movie that no one wants to see does it count She is as good as the movie is bad.
All of the performers in this film seem to think they are in a classic. They emote with hysterical energy. This can be said of Paltrow, Fiennes and Wood. Clayburgh is a little more sympathetic in her role. She makes Agnes a sad creature and presents her with a face that looks like it is melting.
The film is rated R for profanity (endless), some violence, and sexual situations.
Hollywood seems to think audiences would like nothing better than to see two hours of deranged people going through lives filled with hysteria and mayhem. They live in squalor, and act out their grossest instincts. That’s not entertainment!
The book is reputed to be funny and intriguing. The movie version is just bad.
I scored “Running With Scissors” a blunt-edged 3 out of 10.
