RUNNING WITH SCISSORS

Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
TriStar Pictures
Directed by: Ryan Murphy
Written By: Ryan Murphy, novel by Augusten Burroughs
Grade: C+
Cast: Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel
Wood, Alec Baldwin, Jill Clayburgh, Joseph Cross
Screened at: Dolby 88, NYC, 10/2/06
Opens: October 11, 2006

In his novel, now adapted for the screen by director Ryan
Murphy, Augusten Burroughs implicitly explores the question,
"Are people more likely to become creative when brought up by
normal parents, or by off-the-wall, nonconforming, dysfunctional
families? Burroughs was spawned by a bipolar-depressive
mother who imagines herself a famous poet, by an alcoholic
father, by a stepfather-psychiatrist crazier than his patients and
from the psychiatrist's two bizarre daughters. By the age of
fifteen the lad had the same ambitions as his mom, but while his
mother in real life now lives alone in obscurity, Burroughs had
moved to New York and had written "Running With Scissors."

Watching this movie, one gets the impression that what can
lead to laughter and pathos on the page becomes tiresome on
the screen. There's just so much time that we in the audience
can be patient while watching characters, each a cartoonish
figure defined by his or her mishugas, go about their frantic,
irrational activities. When the time stretches to almost two
hours, fidgeting in seats becomes the norm.

This is not to say that "Running With Scissors" has few
redeeming features. Director Ryan Murphy deserves credit for
a challenging screenplay, one that audience members not
accustomed to indie productions might call "different." The story
is anything but traditional, and the acting, particularly by Annette
Bening–whose character goes from well-dressed and energetic
to dowdy and sickly–is engrossing.

More a memoir than a novel, Augusten Burrough's harrowing
book centers on the principal influences in his life, all of whom
are dysfunctional albeit in different ways. Burroughs, played as
a 14-year-old by Joseph Cotton and as a six-year-old by Jack
Kaeding, is wise beyond his years. Scarcely in first grade, he is
already familiar with the content of the New Yorker, particularly
since his grandiose mom, Deidre Burroughs (Annette Bening),
fills her trash can with rejection slips for her poetry from that
selective magazine. His alcoholic father Norman (Alec
Baldwin), a math professor who has given up trying to figure out
Deidre, is stunned to hear their financially-challenged
psychiatrist Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), demand that they spend five
hours daily in couples therapy. After their divorce, Deidre has
Dr. Finch formally adopt her boy, where he falls under the
influence of the doctor's "oppressed," dog kibble-eating wife
Agnes (Jill Clayburgh), and their two confused daughters (Evan
Rachel Wood and Gwyneth Paltrow), while he enters into a
homosexual relationship with one Neil Bookman (Joseph
Fiennes), who at one point contemplates murdering Dr. Finch
with a pair of scissors.

There are inspired moments of wacky humor, such as Dr.
Finch's confession that he masturbates to a picture of Golda
Meir and Queen Elizabeth in the "masturbatorium," and
poignant scenes, as when Deirdre regularly leads her poetry
club into expressing their rage and later comes out as a lesbian.

Despite the fine ensemble performances, the one-zany-thing-
after-another pacing becomes redundant.

Rated R. 116 minutes (C)2006 by Harvey Karten at
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online