Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 23, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, October 27, 2006 Page: 61 of 104
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screen
Doesn't quite cut it
Sharply talented Annette Beriing chews the scenery as a bipolar bisexual,
but 'Scissors' script could have been sliced better
Get Offline,
Get Outside & Get Connected.
V
DRAMA QUEEN: Alcoholic husband Norman (Alec Baldwin) and depressive poet wife Deirdre (Annette Boning) fight it out.
By Steve Warren Contributing Film Critic
Annette Bening delivers a shameless, "Gimme
an Oscar!" performance as Deirdre Burroughs
in "Running with Scissors," a bipolar movie
based on Augusten Burroughs' memoir of com-
ing of age in the 1970s.
We meet Augusten (Jack Kaeding) in 1972,
when he's six years old and under the spell of
his mother, Dierdre, a wannabe poet who audi-
tions her work for her enthusiastic son before
submitting it to the New Yorker. Norman (Alec
Baldwin), his alcoholic father, is rarely there for
him, so it's no wonder Augusten is a mama's
boy. She'll let him stay home from school on
excuses like, "I over-conditioned my hair."
By 1978, it's obvious the family needs help.
It arrives, in a spoof of "The
Exorcist," in the form of a
psychiatrist, Dr. Finch (Brian
Cox), whose own family is
even worse.
Augusten (played by
Joseph Cross, who is far too
old — 20 now, 19 during filming — for the
role) finds out first hand when Dr. Finch per-
suades his parents to divorce and Dierdre sends
the boy to live with the psychiatrist.
Dr. Finch has a drab wife, Agnes (Jill
Clayburgh), and two daughters, Hope
(Gwyneth Paltrow), his favorite, and Natalie
(Evan Rachel Wood), "the other daughter."
Augusten bonds with the rebellious Natalie
and tells her he's gay. She tells him about anoth-
er of Dr. Finch's adopted sons, Neil Bookman
(Joseph Fiennes), who introduces him to "what
gay men do."
Soon they're doing it regularly — never
mind that Neil's more than twice Augusten's
age.
At this point, Dierdre is in and out of her
son's life, mostly out. One day Augusten pays
her a surprise visit and finds her in the arms of
Fern (Kristin Chenoweth), a younger woman
from her poetry group. He's shocked: "How
could my mother be with Fern? Fern drives a
Chevy Nova."
Augusten tries to avoid school because "I
don't fit in."
Dr. Finch offers professional fatherly
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS
f"lr . Director: Ryan Murphy
"P1 Cast: Annette Bening, Joseph
Fiennes, Alec Baldwin, Evan Rachel
Wood, Joseph Gross.and Kristin Chenoweth
Opens Oct. V in wide release.
2 hrs., 1 min. R
advice: A suicide attempt will give him a legiti-
mate excuse for missing a few months. He also
helps Dierdre, when she's been dumped by
Fern, by introducing her to another of his
patients, Dorothy Ambrose (Gabrielle Union),
who competes with Augusten for his mother's
affection.
When Augusten is 14, he gives himself a
new, "faggier" look that involves wearing
scarves, Isadora Duncan-style but without her
consequences. At 15, he declares, "I want rules
and boundaries .... I want to be grounded for
sleeping with a 35-year-old schizophrenic!"
Years earlier, while still living with both par-
ents, he had asked, "Why can't we just be a nor-
mal family?" not realizing
that they were.
Written, produced and
directed by Ryan Murphy,
creator of "Nip Tuck."
"Running with Scissors" is
a depressing comedy that
has some hilarious moments. But ultimately, the
film is more serious pain than funny pain. Once
you've been moved by the characters, it's hard-
er to laugh at them. And some of the humor is
particularly vicious.
True or not — and like most successful
recent memoirs its veracity has been questioned
— Burroughs' "Mommie Dearest" is often
quite unpleasant. It's like a gayer version of
"The Royal Tenenbaums" that doesn't work.
They must have used low-calorie scenery or
Bening would have gained a ton from all she
chews up. She does it brilliantly, but is too bla-
tantly vying for award consideration to notice
what's going on around her. (True, Deirdre is
self-absorbed...) The casting of Cross ("Wide
Awake") seems calculated to make the film less
offensive by having Augusten appear older than
he's supposed to be. (His age is only mentioned
a couple of times, once as "over 13.")
The rest of the cast — hemmed in by the
script's bipolarity — is good enough to make
you care about them, which spoils a lot of the
comedy. Perhaps if someone hadn't run away
with the scissors, the script could have been cut
into something more viable.
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10.27.06 I dallas voice I 61
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 23, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, October 27, 2006, newspaper, October 27, 2006; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth238932/m1/61/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.