Running With Scissors keeps steady pace

By Kylie Wakefield
Collegian Staff
November 8, 2006

Running with Scissors is about family, life’s struggles and how we all go a little crazy sometimes.

The film opens with a young Augusten Burroughs playing make-believe with his lavishly decorated mother, Deidre (Annette Bening). Deidre stands on a makeshift stage in her living room, reading an emotionally charged poem about adversity to her son. She claims that one day she will be published in The New Yorker while Augusten praises her writing. He speaks eloquently for a six-year-old, obviously hooked on each of his mother’s words.

This scene depicts Augusten in his true form: he is a precocious and mature boy who feels a deep adoration towards his mother. Fast forward seven years later — Augusten (now played by Joseph Cross) hides behind a counter in the kitchen, laughing when his mother criticizes a fellow writer’s shallow poem.

Augusten’s father Norman (Alec Baldwin), an alcoholic who sees nothing of himself in his son, frequently fights with Deidre, who claims she is emotionally abused by him. Deidre feels suffocated by Norman, as if she cannot fulfill her dreams because of him. She calls in Dr. Finch (Brian Cox) to help repair her marriage. When Finch demands that the couple spend five hours together in his office daily, Norman refuses. He leaves Augusten and Deidre, refusing to talk to either of them.

Soon after Norman leaves, Deidre gives up Augusten for adoption to Dr. Finch. The Finch household is composed of the doctor, his dog food-eating wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh), his Bible-thumping daughter Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow) and his neglected daughter Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood). Inside the house are a two-year-old rotting Christmas tree, a masturbatorium, electro-shock therapy devices and a random toddler who proudly defecates on the floor.

Augusten starts a relationship with a 30-some schizophrenic patient of Finch’s, Neil Bookman (Joseph Fiennes). He also takes up smoking, drinking and other typically adult activities, although he is merely 13 years old. He watches his mother suffer from depression and anxiety. All he truly wants is Deidre’s love, something she cannot fully give him because of her narcissistic tendencies.

Running With Scissors begins as a quirky film highlighted by the events of insanity that occurred in the Finch household. It is very Royal Tenenbaums meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — funny, moving and depressing all at once. However, the film starts to become a bit tiring once the slow mental deterioration of Augusten’s mother kicks in.

It seems that nothing goes right for Augusten after the two people closest to him, his mother and his lover, have nervous breakdowns. Augusten slowly realizes that his mother’s delusions of grandeur are just that. He no longer believes in his mother but is disappointed by her actions.

The film is beautifully executed in a visual sense. The set design and costumes perfectly capture the 1972-1980 time period. The cinematography is flawless and it’s daring with stylistic effects. The soundtrack, from Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” to Manfred Mann’s “Blinded by the Light,” add to the dynamic of every earth-shattering scene.

But it’s the performances that make Running With Scissors an extraordinary piece of film. Bening is truly in her element; it seems like she was destined to play the delusional, half-crazy mother of Augusten. From the hospital bed to a grand stage before her made-up audience, she never ceases to amaze. Cox does a brilliant job of playing the two-sided Dr. Finch, while Fiennes perfects his role as a manic depressive pedophile.

Clayburgh captures every facet of Agnes Finch’s personality, from her devout love for her husband to her kibble-eating crazy side. Wood has never been better, combining subtle sexuality with teenage angst to create the character of Natalie. Even the scarcely seen Hope is a convincible role for Paltrow. Cross is just as fit for his role as Augusten as Bening is for Deidre — he shows more talent and promise than most young actors in Hollywood today.

Running With Scissors is an essential film for Bening lovers everywhere, as well as those who are fans of the book. If one hasn’t read the novel, then the film may be that much more shocking.

wakefieldk1@lasalle.edu