DVD Review - Running with Scissors

I avoided seeing Running with Scissors on the big screen because I read the book and I thought that it was just too unbelievable. But I thought that I should check it out in DVD. And I actually liked the film. No, I still don't buy the entire story. But director Ryan Murphy does a good job of bringing Augusten Burroughs' memoir to the screen (Burroughs also wrote the screenplay).

The story starts out with young Augusten (Joseph Cross) being caught in the middle of his parent's volatile marriage. His mother Deidre (Annette Bening) feels that his father Norman (Alec Baldwin) is stifling her creativity. She is obviously bipolar and Norman's drinking doesn't help things. Deidre enlists the help of a strange psychiatrist named Dr. Finch (Brian Cox) in an effort to save her marriage. This doesn't help and the couple split.

Deidre's next decision is a bad one - she makes Augusten live with Dr. Finch and his family. The other members of the Finch family are his wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh), and his two daughters, Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood). Each one of them is quirky in their own way. Also coming into Augusten's life Neil Bookman (Joseph Fiennes), who was also adopted by the Finch family. Neil is gay and Augusten has come to the realization that he, too, is gay. So he embarks on an affair with the older Bookman.

One can only imagine the impact of a mother giving her child away. I am sure that it is more devastating than either the book or the film can show or tell. All of the acting is good. I really liked Clayburgh's performance and it is nice to see her back on the big screen after an absence.
But the film belongs to Bening. She was terrific! This is not an easy role to tackle. And was also impressed with the fact that both Bening and Clayburgh were not afraid to look older. My hats off to them.

I don't know why the critics didn't like this film but I don't understand many things about the critics. I say be your own critic. All in all, I enjoyed this film (and didn't worry if not everything was fact). I found it darkly funny and also touching. And while it is not a film for everyone I think that many of you want to see something different and are open will like it.