Running With Scissors (2006)

Natalie was FAT!

First of all, Natalie was a big girl, however Hollywood will never allow that, and whatever. If I had never read the book, I mightve liked this movie, but the book was sooo much more. I cant let it go. The movie was just lacking, thats it. Annette Benning I thought was distracting in a good way, she was the best part of the movie. But I just cant get over the fact that Natalie was a skinny sexy Hollywood type. Shame.Running With Scissors July 10, 2008

Dysfunctional childhood one would not wish to anyone

Several years ago, I attended C-SPAN's book tour in Chicago. Amongst many writers promoting their upcoming books was Augustin Burroughs. Although I never read his work, I knew his name and that he had a best selling memoir out -- at the time, when people were fabricating their own. I guess Augustin's childhood was such a preposterous one that other writers tried to match it to some degree by fictionalizing parts of their own. In any case, book reading was fun and Augustin was reading from his new book. I could see that this is a writer who prides himself on seeing humor in the obscene world around us. I was also struck by his openness and frankness that inlcued his sexual orientation as well. So when this movie came out I had to see it. I was hoping to capture his childhood and see how he became the man and writer that he is today. And while the film will keep you mesmerized about his growing up, his parents, his parents' divorce and unbelievable life afterwards, you will truly enjoy Annette Bening's portrayal of the middle aged bi-polar woman who is incapable of being a mother and cannot cope with her own miserable life. What does get lost in the film is the author's humor. Hence, four stars. But this story is so original that I guarantee you have never seen (or read) anything like this before. July 6, 2008

good book bad movie

I read the book and thought the movie would be good. I was disappointed. I tried twice to watch the movie. After the second try I decided that the movie was not watchable. Wish I had rented it instead of buying. June 21, 2008

Quirky family, that's for sure

OK, perhaps this film has some semblance to the true upbringing of the main character, the teen-aged Augusten Burroughs, but if so, the whole lot of them needed to be committed.

Joseph Cross plays the young Burroughs, and does a pretty good job. The character's gay, and Mr. Cross is believable as a gay would-be hairdresser (sorry, cosmetologist). Most of the attention is going to be paid to Annette Bening's Deirdre Burroughs' performance, and Ms. Bening plays the self-indulgent, no-talent mother well, but the character is totally without sympathy. Jill Clayburgh plays Agnes Finch as a sad-sack, overwhelmed loser, but is one of the few sympathetic characters in the film. The beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow plays a character (Hope Finch) somewhat similar to her role in "The Royal Tenenbaums" (quirky to a fault).

Overall, the movie was somewhat entertaining, but don't expect lots of laughs. My thoughts were (1) the father played (well) by Alex Baldwin should have divorced (or better yet, never married) Deirdre; (2) Child protective Services would have had its hands full with the Finch's even more dysfunctional family; (3) getting Augusten out of both the Burroughs' and the Finch's house was what we all were waiting for; and (4) the IRS hounding of Mr. Finch was probably the best use of that agency in quite some time.

I can't really recommend the movie, but it isn't as bad as the worst reviews here, nor as good as the five-star reviews. Two and one-half stars. June 14, 2008

Waste of time and money

I should have looked at the reviews before I subjected myself to what I thought would be a good movie. I watched the entire movie then removed it from the DVD player opened the back door and threw it across the yard. It will remain there until trash day and then it will reside in a land fill with all the other garbage. May 31, 2008

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