Annette Bening is the stand-out highlight in this dysfunctional "family" comedy based on the bestselling memoir by Augusten Burroughs. Although fans of the book may be slightly disappointed with the film's uneven and somewhat campy rendition of Burroughs' twisted adolescence in the 1970s, there's plenty of pleasure to be found in the work of an excellent cast led by Bening, who gives a subtle dare-to-hate-me performance as Burroughs' mother Diedre, a would-be poet who's so aloof about her teenage son Augusten (played by fresh-faced newcomer Joseph Cross, from Flags of Our Fathers) that she allows him to be legally adopted into the eccentric family of her psychiatrist, Dr. Finch (Brian Cox). As the half-crazed Finch overmedicates Diedre into a haze of semi-conscious madness, he also turns Augusten's life upside down while his wife (Jill Clayburgh) and daughters (Gwyneth Paltrow, Evan Rachel Wood) indulge their own eccentricities and Augusten enters into an intimate relationship with one of Finch's adopted patients (played by Joseph Fiennes). As adapted and directed by Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy, Running with Scissors lacks the singular voice of Burroughs' dryly comedic first-person narrative, but even as the film struggles to find a consistent tone, it's so full of wacky behavior that you can't help laughing. It's a messy, patchwork quilt of a movie, blessed by authentically garish '70s production design and a soundtrack of familiar '70s hits. In rendering Burroughs' indelible portrait of weak, irresponsible adults and the people they victimize, Murphy and his well-chosen cast (which also includes Alec Baldwin as Diedre's ex-husband) find moments of touching pathos amidst the madness. For her part, Bening delivers an acclaimed performance that gives the film a dramatic weight it otherwise lacks. The rest is for anyone who enjoys a laugh at the freak-show expense of damaged and damaging characters. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description
Based on the personal memoirs of Augusten Burroughs, Running with Scissors is a wickedly funny, brave and moving tale of surviving a most unusual childhood. Augusten's (Joseph Cross) mother (Annette Bening) is a deluded aspiring post with bipolar disorder whose marriage to his dad (Alec Baldwin) is in ruins. Soon, she is seeing a very eccentric therapist named Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), while Augusten is left in the care of Finch's wackly family, including his tightly-wound daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow). Abandoned by his parents and adopted by the Finches, he finds a kindred spirit in youngest daughter Natalie (Even Rachel Wood) and motherly support from Finch's long suffering wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh). Constantly recording the events of his life in his journals as a way to cope, Augusten finds himself avoiding school, learning about love from an older man (Joseph Fiennes), and making big decisions at the tender age of fifteen.

This film is based on Augusten Burroughs' memoir of the same name. Burroughs (played by Joseph Cross in the film) grew up in a household with an alcoholic father, Norman (Alec Baldwin), and a mentally unbalanced mother, Deirdre (Annette Bening). Augusten's father eventually walked out on his wife and son, leaving Augusten and Deirdre to fend for themselves. Unfortunately, Deirdre is so screwed up that she's unable to care for herself, let alone be a stable parent to Augusten. Enter Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), Deirdre's unorthodox psychiatrist. Augusten soon comes to realize that Dr. Finch's methods for treating patients are beyond crazy...and speaking of crazy, the entire Finch family is just as nutty as its patriarch. Augusten gets to experience the madness of the Finch household firsthand when Deirdre decides to let Dr. Finch and his wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh) adopt her son. In addition to Dr. and Mrs. Finch, Augusten has to deal with sultry Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood), uptight Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow), and Neil Bookman (Joseph Fiennes), the Finch's 35-year-old adopted schizophrenic son.

Augusten goes through a lot during his time in the Finch household, including being involved in a homosexual relationship with Neil. Ultimately, Augusten realizes that the only way he'll be able to escape his mother and the Finch family is to take matters into his own hands, but he doesn't know if he's strong enough to do that.

I think this movie was perfectly cast. The shining star of the film is Bening, who delivers an unbelievably fantastic performance as the troubled Deirdre. Fiennes also has some great scenes as Neil (the poetry reading session is one of my favorite scenes in the film). I think the problem with this film is the screenplay, which is pretty bad. There are so many outlandish things that are outlined in the book but do not translate to the big screen. I'm not surprised that the producers felt the need to tone things down somewhat: a movie with graphic homosexual love scenes, parental avocation of children having sex with middle-aged predators, and intense scrutiny of human feces probably wouldn't go over very well in most social circles. However, by omitting so many important details and toning down the material that actually did make the cut, the movie just doesn't have the same shock value as the book, which is a shame.

The movie also seems to focus much more on Deirdre than the Finch family. As I mentioned before, Bening's performance is excellent and all her scenes are enjoyable to watch, but I think the Finch family should have been featured more, especially Dr. Finch himself. The doctor's character was never fully developed in the film at all.

I also don't understand why certain things were changed drastically from the book. Natalie's character was very different in the movie than in the book. The character of Hope is barely featured in the film at all, which is a waste of Paltrow's talent. Finally, the ending of the movie was completely altered for no apparent reason. I don't understand it!

If you haven't read the book, you'll probably enjoy the film more than I did. The book is a thousand times better than the movie, which is very sad because the cast is so talented...they were just screwed out of a decent screenplay.