Review of Running with Scissors (2006) by Daniel P — 24 Oct 2009

Ryan Murphy has done an excellent job of taking poignant, disturbing and sometimes laugh-out-loud material and adapting it into something profoundly annoying. Augusten Burroughs' superbly written first memoir details in vignettes moments of his teenage life at the hands of massively irresponsible adults: an abusive, loveless father; a fundamentally damaged and abused mother; a paedophile; and an unhinged, unstable psychiatrist doctor.

Ryan Murphy gets so much wrong it's hard to know where to begin, but for starters Augusten's father (here played by Alec Baldwin) is sympathetic when he should be feared, his mother (played with skill and dexterity by Annette Bening) is promoted to a starring role when she should be barely glimpsed, and music cues are overused to the nth degree.

The manipulation Neil Bookman has over Augusten, which forms a good deal of the backbone of the memoir, is hastily got through in a few scenes and lacks any depth. Joseph Cross as Augusten does a very good job however, and his scenes with Evan Rachel Wood are amongst the most funny and successful.

But too much potential is wasted and the film tries too hard to shock and be melodramatic in some areas whilst neutering the power of others. Read the book again instead.