RUNNING WITH SCISSORS

US, 2006, 118 minutes, Colour.
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.
Directed by Ryan Murphy.

What image does a title like Running with Scissors evoke? Something a bit mad, to say the least.

Which means that it probably is a very good title for this piece of cinema of the absurd.

There has been something of a fringe tradition of eccentric American films which not only highlight the absurdities of the human condition (especially the American variety) but also a tradition of films that take on the absurd in their style and ways of communicating characters and themes. To go back only over the last forty years, one might think of Dr Strangelove, Catch 22 and some of the oddities of the 1970s. In more recent times, Wes Anderson has created a niche for himself in this tradition with Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums (which seems something like a cousin to Running with Scissors) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

This is a memoir by Augusten Burroughs – who himself appears during the end credits with the actor who portrays him, Joseph Cross. The film begins preciously with his voiceover about his mother leaving him and his leaving his mother. There follows an introduction to his increasingly strange mother, Deidre (Annette Bening), a would-be poet who lives in her dreams of fame and success but whose appreciative audience is her little boy, Augusten, and whose unappreciative audience is her continually frustrated and now alcoholic husband (Alec Baldwin).

Annette Bening gives a tour-de-force performance as the mad and maddening mother, something like an amalgam of some of her impressive roles in American Beauty and Being Julia.

Running with Scissors has touches of the surreal, the oddball, the queer, the satirical, the frustrating – it is like being lost in bonkers.

Where mother and son are lost is in the mad hatter’s kind of pink house of Dr Finch, Deidre’s psychiatrist – who qualifies as the most likely to be deregistered. The household is somewhat controlled by his haggard wife, Agnes. Dr Finch has a tendency towards incorporating or adopting clients into his household. He has two daughters, the standoffish and almost normal Natalie and the older, repressed disciple, Hope. The audience also spends a lot of time incorporated into this mad household.

What makes the stay so persuasive, even while we feel alienated from what is going on, are the performances. Brian Cox can turn his hand to most roles. He really makes us believe that such a character as Dr Finch could exist. Jill Clayburgh, in a rare screen role, opts out of glamour as Agnes. Evan Rachel Wood is the frequently deadpan Natalie. The surprise is that the supporting role of Hope is well played by Gwyneth Paltrow.

The cast is really very strong, especially with the addition of Joseph Fiennes as another adoptee, a gay schizophrenic who has a relationship with the young Augusten and who is the character who gets the opportunity almost to run with scissors, literally.

The screenplay is an accumulation of memories rather than plot-driven, so one could opt in and out much as Deirdre does and as Augusten does. The effect of the film depends on whether you get caught up with Deirdre or with Augusten – and Joseph Cross tries his best to be independent of them all while really dependent. But he survived to remember and invent this tale from the madhouse.

1.The film based on a famous book? Memoir? An adaptation to the screen? The story of Augusten Burroughs? Surreal? The ending with the real Burroughs and Joseph Cross?

2.The title, evocation, the scene with Neil Bookman?

3.The visual style of the film, the opening and the comments, the darkness, the voice, the glimpses? The characters and caricatures? The odd situations? The blend of the real and the imaginary? The style of the dialogue? Humour? Black humour and satire? A satire on America, American families? American values?

4.The re-creation of the 70s and 80s, the style, visuals, images, clothes and hair? The issues?

5.The portrait of Augusten, the voice-over and the perspective of his mother, his birth, growing up, small, listening to his mother and her poetry performance, the clashes with his father, his own writing, diary, codes? His activities – not masculine and his father puzzling? His growing into teenage, fourteen turning fifteen? The clashes with his father, his father leaving? Being alone with his mother, her narcissism, the growing alienation, going to Doctor Finch?

6.Deirdre and her histrionics, ambitions, wanting acclaim, celebrity? Her image of herself? Her poetry and the readings? The clashes with Norman, her going to the doctor? The introduction to Doctor Finch, balanced or not, his two daughters and his hold over them, Agnes and the bond between the two? His helping people? The eccentric house at the end of the street, things on the lawn, the pink house? His adopting Neil? The rituals at home, Agnes, Augusten and his liking for Agnes, the relationship with Neil, discovering his sexuality? Going out with Neil, the world of art, literature? The effect on him?

7.The change of Augusten’s attitude towards his mother? Seeing her at home, with the women’s group and the poetry? His father not wanting to see him? The role of the doctor – wanting to be a substitute father figure, adopt him? His mother, going to the doctor’s, the breakdown, the valium, her zombie-like state? In the house, with the women friends? Going to hospital? His decisions as to what he should do? His final exasperation, his asking Natalie to go with him, Neil’s attempt on the doctor’s life, Agnes coming to the bus station, giving him the money, getting on the bus – going to a future? At age fifteen? Knowing that he became a writer – and seeing him at the end of the film?

8.The portrait of Deirdre, the drama queen, her poetry, performance, clashes with Norman and abuse of him? Publishers and rejection slips? Augusten listening to her, even as a boy? Her relying on him? Her being cantankerous, verbal clashes, the fights? The decision to go to the doctor, her dependence on him, the pills, living in the house? The sessions, the revelations? Her manner? Sexual? Her moving in and out of the house? The poetry groups, their adulation, her being critical, the women in tears? The beginnings of sexual experimentation, with Fern, with Dorothy? Dorothy moving in? Augusten and his clashes with Dorothy? Agnes and her confrontation of her? Suicide attempts, breakdowns, going to hospital? Her meeting with Norman and his fiancée, the continued clashes? Living in her own world, imagining success at Carnegie Hall?

9.Doctor Finch, his person, his charm, treatment of people, invitations, the house, his relationship with Agnes, with the girls, with Neil? Adopting people? His room, blunt and frank talk? Sexually frank? His treatments, the valium tablets? The discussions with each of the characters? His wanting to adopt Augusten? Causing havoc, a quack, his reputation? Neil and the attack with the scissors?

10.Agnes and her being dowdy, eating the dog food, watching the television, her life, patient, with the two girls, with her husband? The humdrum reality? Her talking about dreams and not fulfilling them? Her confronting Deirdre? Her wanting to change the house? Assert herself, giving the money to Augusten for his journey?

11.The two girls, Hope, her name, devoted to her father, the cat, Freud, his death, the joke about him being in the stew? Mournful? Helping her father? Her way of talking, Augusten and his hairstyle for her? Her staying? Natalie, seemingly normal, the interest in shock treatment, her age, hopes, Augusten and the relationship, his invitation for her to go with him? Her not going?

12.Augusten, his hopes, wanting to do hairdressing, the gift of the book? His experimentation with the haircuts, with Hope and with Natalie? His relationship with Neil, sexual, their frank discussions?

13.Neil, his mental state, his appearance, adopted by the doctor, the treatment, his apartment, the relationship to Augusten, the homosexual orientation, the sexual relationship, their discussions, going out together? His being taunted, the episode with the scissors and his threat to Doctor Finch? His motivation? His disappearance?

14.A surreal film, an oddball world, audiences identifying with the characters and situations or not? Insight? The effect of this kind of black humour entertainment?