Have you read Running with Scissors?
If you have, you probably have a good idea of what to expect from the movie version. If you haven't, keep in mind that, great cast notwithstanding, the subject matter may be a bit depressing, even if a positive outlook is cast upon conclusion.
Augusten Burroughs best-selling childhood memoir suffers in its screen transition, because it's first-person narrative simply can't be translated in a movie adaptation -- Burroughs here is played by relative newcomer Joseph Cross (also seen in Flags of Our Fathers) more as a detached observer than as a young, impressionable child surrounded by deeply disturbed individuals.
Speaking about his childhood, Burroughs said in the production notes that "It was definitely crazy and kind of awful and scary but it was also thrilling because I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And I paid very close attention when I was living that experience. I knew that I was going through something that if it didn't kill me, would make me better in the end."
Burroughs grew up in the 1970s in a dysfunctional household, with the Valium-happy aspiring writer Deirdre (Annette Bening, in an Academy Award-worthy performance) and alcoholic professor Norman (Alec Baldwin, in yet another excellent supporting performance). As his parents' marriage disintegrates, Deirdre takes Augusten to the bizarre Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), the head of a possibly even more dysfunctional family, where Augusten is eventually sent to live when Deirdre can no longer take care of him. The Finch household includes Mrs. Finch (the marvelous Jill Clayburgh), daughters Hope and Natalie (Gwyneth Paltrow and Evan Rachel Wood) and the deeply disturbed “adopted†son Neil Bookman (Joseph Fiennes). Augusten will eventually entertain the possibility of relationships with both Natalie and Neil, which of course means coming to terms with his sexual orientation.
Writer/director Ryan Murphy, best known for the TV series Nip/Tuck, tries to bring some gloss to the movie highlighting the bizarre humor of many of the characters' foibles. Unfortunately, this makes it harder to care for them as the actual human beings on whom they are based, in spite of Murphy's obvious affection for the project.
"What I love about this project is that even though it was a very specific story about childhood, it's also very much about the universal quest for family and identity," Murphy said. "I always thought the most important thing is that this is a survival story. It says that, ultimately, if you believe in yourself and in the idea that everybody has something to say, you can endure dire circumstances. It's also a story of forgiveness. Forgiving others is often really about forgiving yourself, and when Augusten decides to forgive his mother for giving him away and for her mental illness, it allows him to go forward with hope."
Burroughs believes that "when people see the movie, they will see some things that came through the personal discussions Ryan and I had. There's a lot of additional richness in the screenplay that comes from talking together. At the same time, Ryan was very protective. He was never thinking about wild, funny ideas he could use simply for the sake of the film, or saying 'this would be cool.' There was none of that. He wanted the film to be very emotionally honest, and it is."
Well, I wish Running with Scissors could have left me with the same sense of pathos as Ingmar Bergman's classic, Fanny and Alexander. That movie was a reminder that childhood can bring wonderful and horrible things, but that children can be extremely resilient and get through some very rough stuff. Unfortunately, Running with Scissors is no Fanny and Alexander, in spite of some marvelous performances, most notably, by Bening, who gives one of the best performances of her career. As good as some of the individual parts are, the movie as a whole is less than the sum of its parts.
"Running with Scissors" opens October 20, 2006 and is rated R. Comedy, Drama. Written and directed by Ryan Murphy. Starring Alec Baldwin, Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Evan Rachel Wood, Gabrielle Union, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Cross, Joseph Fiennes, Kristin Chenoweth, Patrick Wilson.
