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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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Seen, Heard, Noted & Quoted
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by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
B Rated R 120 min.
Movies that come from books often don’t stack up to the original, but in the case of Running With Scissors, the movie measures up. The changes that were made were necessary to the medium, and the movie definitely captured the hilarious, quirky insanity that is the essence of the book. I thought that they would leave out some of the more shocking details, like the Dr. Finch’s masturbatorum, Hope’s joke about feeding the family the dead cat and the 35 year-old Neil’s relationship with the under-age Augusten, but all of these elements were present in the movie. Since Augusten is gay, his sexuality plays a part in the movie. Although gay sex is implied, there’s never an on-screen man on man kiss.
Running With Scissors is a biographical account of Augusten Burrough’s own childhood and teen years. His mother, a bi-polar would-be poetess, gives custody of her son to her psychiatrist after her divorce from Augustine’s father. Dr.Finch’s rules-free household, with disgusting dishes stacked high and a toddler defecating behind a Christmas tree that’s been up for two years, is quite a change for the fastidious Augusten.
Jack Kaeding, who plays Augusten as a little boy, captures the near-worship of Augusten for his mother as he says the things she needs to hear about her poetry. The youthful Joseph Cross takes over as Augusten for the bulk of the film, as Augusten tries to puzzle his life out in the midst of chaos and absurdity. I did think that the twenty-year-old actor was too old to play the thirteen year old character (although he ages a few years in movie). His older look took away from the shock value I think the role deserved. When he’s abandoned by his mother it’s not as big of a deal as it should be because he looks older.
As Augusten’s fame hungry mother, Deirdre Burroughs, Annette Bening was charismatic and funny even in her psychosis. As she spirals further into madness, she seeks the unorthodox help of Dr. Finch, who gives her more and more medications and apparently takes advantage of her sexually. Because I read the book, at first I objected to Alec Baldwin playing the part of Augusten’s dad, Norman Burroughs, but as I watched the movie, my opinion changed. He played the part with such a hopeless weariness that the handsome movie star drained away, replaced by an emotionally spent alcoholic, a desperately ordinary man trying to escape his life and his wife with a bottle.
Augusten and Natalie Finch, another member of the Doctor’s household, have such an odd, fun-filled relationship. Without her Augustin might not have had someone to commiserate with about the craziness around them. The doctor’s household is so laden with the skewed logic of the insane, that it’s difficult to judge what normal is. Many of the people in Augusten’s life are so crazy that it’s impossible to reason with them. When the Doctor declares that his morning bowel movement is prophetic and asks that a shrine be set up around the sacred turd, it’s Augusten and Natalie who find it absurd, who laugh about it. In contrast to Natalie is the Doctor’s other daughter, Hope, played masterfully by Gwyneth Paltrow. Completely insane and wholly under the Dr. Finch’s control, she believes the family’s cat, Freud, speaks to her and is utterly dependent on her father’s approval. Dinner time conversation consists of Hope and Natalie competing for their father’s attention by throwing around psychological terms and insulting each other.
A welcome surprise was the expansion of the character Agnes (Jill Clayburgh), who becomes a sort of mother figure for Augusten. She and Augustin grow together as characters. Her escape from the Doctor’s house is small, but by helping Augusten as he leaves, she has her own small victory. In the end, Augusten chooses to escape the insanity and realizes that he wants boundaries in his life.
However strange the characters in Scissors are, before the movie ends you’ll find you have a kinship with them even as you laugh at their ludicrousness. The progression of the movie is a bit rough, but the great acting pulls viewers through the rough spots. Oscar buzz has already begun as far as Annette Bening’s part is concerned, but she’s more than equaled by the rest of the ensemble. Be sure to wait in the theater as the credits roll since there’s an extra bit at the end.
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