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Based on the bestselling memoir by Augusten Burroughs, RUNNING
WITH SCISSORS features an all-star cast including Annette
Bening, Brian Cox, Evan Rachel Wood, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Alec
Baldwin. As a child, Augusten (Joseph Cross) completely adores
his narcissistic mother Deirdre (Bening). Her biggest fan, he
encourages her goal of becoming a published poet when no one
else will. But while these dreams of grandeur seem innocent
through Augusten's young eyes, they grow more delusional with
time, slowly wearing on the family and contributing to its
demise. While a teenage Augusten skips school and his father
Norman (Alec Baldwin) uses alcohol to escape, Deirdre calls in
an eccentric psychiatrist for an outside opinion. Dr. Finch's
advice ends up being anything but professional, however, as
his looseness with prescriptions and wacko theories end
Deirdre's dysfunctional marriage and prompt her to abandon
Augusten. Left to spend his teenage years as part of Dr.
Finch's outlandish family, Augusten struggles to find himself
while surrounded by a series of tormented and over-analyzed
individuals.
Director Ryan Murphy relies
heavily on music to express the emotions of his characters and
to ground viewers in time, bringing the memoir to life with
classic 1970s songs by Elton John, the Average White Band, and
Nat King Cole. Seemingly modeled visually after Wes Anderson's
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, the film revolves around intricately
over-the-top sets which aim to reflect the neuroses of its
characters. In making most of the film as dramatic as
possible, Murphy sometimes threatens to overshadow what are
undeniably fine actors at work. The film's saving grace comes
in its non-fiction source material, as viewers without that
knowledge may find the characters too peculiar and the story
too unbelievable for their own good.
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