Review of Running with Scissors

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS (2006) ** Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel Wood, Alec Baldwin, Joseph Cross, Jill Clayburgh, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gabrielle Union, Patrick Wilson, Kristin Chenoweth, Dagmara Dominczyk, Colleen Camp, Jack Kaeding. Listless adaptation of the biographical novel by Augusten Burroughs (played with guileless aplomb by newcomer Cross) – who collaborated on the screenplay with the director Ryan Murphy – and his life of misery sparked by his eccentric and mentally unbalanced free-spirit mother (Bening in an Oscar worthy performance making a complex and unsympathetic character full-blooded instead of camp), a 'creative type' who self-aggrandizes herself to be a genius writer to the point of mania resulting in her dumping her only child into the crazy family of her shrink (Cox), a quack with many odd methods and questionable practices. While the film tries to sustain some sort of crazy quilt of weirdo characterizations it becomes a bit maddening to find anyone to empathize (or recognize) to contain interest in all the ugliness that ensues.