Augusten Burroughs (Joseph Cross) is caught between his feuding parents (Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin) when their crackpot therapist Dr. Finch (Brian Cox) steps in and offers to take the boy off their hands, throwing the teenager into a far more dysfunctional family setting.
Running with Scissors fails to generate any laughs or emotion due to the very annoying and fake characters. Given the cast, this film should have been a lot better but the screenplay killed any chance of that happening. First of all, there wasn't one likable person to be found nor was there one person in this mess that actually resembled someone you have a chance of meeting. To top it off, they were all mostly vile and carried some weird character habits that were supposed to be "funny" but barely even managed a chuckle. As a general rule, I always watch a film in its entirety although there were many times I was ready to give up. The characters were self obsessed and the movie didn't give me a good reason why I should care for these people.
Even though this film is an adaptation of someone's memoirs, I believe Ryan Murphy should get the blame for this. He expected the viewer to actually feel sorry for the characters but it was very hard to do that because most of the scenes ringed false. Murphy would pry in on his characters ambitions and break them down. It became disturbing to watch after awhile. Also, it seemed like Murphy was going more for shock value than anything else and the majority of the scenes were incredibly stupid.
The acting was mostly a disaster with even some talented people failing to really rise above the awful material. Annette Bening was just recycling some of her old performances. Her character was a self absorbed idiot and she quickly got annoying. It's mind boggling to think that she actually had an outside shot at being nominated for an Oscar but thankfully, she was ignored. Joseph Cross was just very awkward to watch on screen. His mannerisms suited the character slightly but as a whole I didn't really buy his performance. Gwyneth Paltrow was alright although she didn't get a lot of screen time. Evan Rachel Wood was okay at the start but then started becoming annoying. Brian Cox had a few funny scenes but his performance was mostly embarrassing to watch. Alec Baldwin probably gave the best performance although that's not an achievement of any kind. Overall, Running with Scissors was an awful film that is not worth watching. Rating 4/10
Running with Scissors fails to generate any laughs or emotion due to the very annoying and fake characters. Given the cast, this film should have been a lot better but the screenplay killed any chance of that happening. First of all, there wasn't one likable person to be found nor was there one person in this mess that actually resembled someone you have a chance of meeting. To top it off, they were all mostly vile and carried some weird character habits that were supposed to be "funny" but barely even managed a chuckle. As a general rule, I always watch a film in its entirety although there were many times I was ready to give up. The characters were self obsessed and the movie didn't give me a good reason why I should care for these people.
Even though this film is an adaptation of someone's memoirs, I believe Ryan Murphy should get the blame for this. He expected the viewer to actually feel sorry for the characters but it was very hard to do that because most of the scenes ringed false. Murphy would pry in on his characters ambitions and break them down. It became disturbing to watch after awhile. Also, it seemed like Murphy was going more for shock value than anything else and the majority of the scenes were incredibly stupid.
The acting was mostly a disaster with even some talented people failing to really rise above the awful material. Annette Bening was just recycling some of her old performances. Her character was a self absorbed idiot and she quickly got annoying. It's mind boggling to think that she actually had an outside shot at being nominated for an Oscar but thankfully, she was ignored. Joseph Cross was just very awkward to watch on screen. His mannerisms suited the character slightly but as a whole I didn't really buy his performance. Gwyneth Paltrow was alright although she didn't get a lot of screen time. Evan Rachel Wood was okay at the start but then started becoming annoying. Brian Cox had a few funny scenes but his performance was mostly embarrassing to watch. Alec Baldwin probably gave the best performance although that's not an achievement of any kind. Overall, Running with Scissors was an awful film that is not worth watching. Rating 4/10