Dysfunctional families sure are fun to watch.
Once in a while, a film comes along of such heady magnitude that the bar is raised for all films that follow.
Running with Scissors
is that film. Adapted from the heart-wrenching memoirs of writer
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Augusten Burroughs, Ryan Murphy's powerful film sizzles with talent and emotion.
As the adoring son of a self-absorbed, struggling poet, Augusten's (Joseph Cross) young life revolves around the needs of his fabulously dramatic mother, Deirdre (Annette Bening). He hates school, preferring instead to wash his mother's hair and listen to her read her poems aloud. She makes his detached, alcoholic father-played
with searing realism by Alec Baldwin-her archetypal oppressor and, after he charges her in frustration, seeks professional help.
Her savior comes in the form of the sympathetic Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), a self-proclaimed Santa Claus in white loafers with gold buckles. He doles out valium, steamrolls her marriage and convinces her to sign over custody of Augusten to him. Abandoned in a house inspired by Dickens' Mrs. Havisham, Augusten is consumed in a vortex of kibble-eating crazy people inexorably driven by the ubiquitous doctor.
Bening dazzles, capturing, with theatrical mastery, life's unruly destruction of one's dreams. Her world revolves around the belief that she "was meant to be a very famous woman," but rejection after rejection splinters her nerves into oblivion. Deirdre's moment of realization that she has truly lost Augusten is unparalleled, visions of the two of them before the doctor as palpable as the tears on her face.
Augusten's home before the Finch residence is designed in a
Chinoise
style, evoking a disorientation appropriate to the skewed reality of the film's characters. The theme of
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bewilderment continues into the Finches' pink dilapidated mansion and the stylized '70s clothes.
Augusten's only friend is Dr. Finch's Lolita-esque daughter Natalie, a role that establishes Evan Rachel Wood as a force to be reckoned with. The young tart valiantly holds her own against her sister, played by Gwyneth Paltrow doing an Emily Dickinson impression. Natalie introduces Augusten to his 35-year-old schizophrenic lover (Joseph Fiennes), teaches him how to disco and helps him punch a hole in the ceiling to "relieve their oppression."
A large part of the film's success is due to its ability to infuse humor into the saddest moments. A sappy '70s soundtrack plays almost like a radio throughout the film, its powers to evoke sentimentality almost disturbing. Augusten's father picks up his suitcase and leaves to Elton John's "Benny and the Jets," the song distracting from the very serious event taking place. The charm of
Running with Scissors
is its ability to make us laugh when we should be crying, just like the book upon which it is based.
