Film Reviews

Running With Scissors

• Rating:
• Director: Ryan Murphy
• Starring: Annette Bening
• Details: US / 116mins (16).

"I want curfews. I want rules. I want boundaries." Adapted from Augusten Burroughs' best-selling novel, Running With Scissors is a biographical account of the author's early life with a drug-addled mother (Bening) and alcoholic father (Alec Baldwin).When his father walks out, his mother allows her eccentric shrink Dr. Finch (Cox) adopt Augusten (Joseph Cross), and so begins an disorderly life with Finch's dysfunctional family.Running With Scissors should have worked: a great cast coming together for an unconventional movie that could have been up there with The Royal Tenenbaums, The Squid and the Whale or Little Miss Sunshine. However, director Ryan Murphy, who also adapted Burroughs' memoirs, has an uncanny knack of making the viewer not care what the hell happens to any of the characters, deciding to concentrate on their quirky nature rather than their heart or soul. From Bening's narcissistic mother to Cox's wacky therapist (he advises Augusten to attempt suicide to get out of school), the strange idiosyncrasies abound; but ironically, the most boring person and the one we least give a crap about, is the author and protagonist Augusten. The movie is too episodic and lacks momentum - and, because it feels like it's going nowhere, the jokes that made you laugh a half hour ago become annoying. The only standout is Bening, whose performance may be a little too much, but it still could be one of the best of the year. However, being fantastic in an awful movie might hinder her chances on Oscar night.

Review by Gavin Burke