10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE October 27, 2006

eveningsout

Mother isn't always right

Augusten Burroughs' memoir makes a very funny film about broken people

by Anthony Glassman

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there was a strange little boy. His name was Augusten.

As the strange little boy grew up, it became increasingly clear that he was not really so strange, especially not in comparison with the adults surrounding him: an alcoholic father, a mother who was a frustrated poet, and her shrink, who plumbed

entirely new depths of the term “quack."

Running with Scissors, the film adaptation of Augusten Burroughs' memoir, opens today across the country. It tells a fascinating tale of broken people who end up no more or less miserable than when they started, for the most part. This makes it really difficult to decide if it is a comedy or a tragedy, in the classical definitions. But it's very funny, so let's go with that.

Throughout his young life, Augusten

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Augusten and Natalie maintain their composure after adding a skylight to the first-floor kitchen-of a two-story house—in Running With Scissors.

was different, a mama's boy. As he grew up, however, some anger began to blossom at his inability to fit in at school.

Meanwhile, his parents' marriage was falling apart. The two argued almost constantly, and Deirdre Burroughs' (Annette Bening) increasing dependence on her shrink, Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), drives that final wedge between her and her husband (Alec Baldwin).

Eventually, Norman Burroughs leaves, and Deirdre begins having Augusten (by this time played by Joseph Cross) stay with Dr. Finch and his rather oddball family, part of which is made up of patients or the children of patients.

There are his daughters Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood), who are like day and night, one sunny and one dark and gloomy. This being the kind of story that it is, most audience members would very much like to see a piano fall on Pollyanna Hope's head, but that never comes to pass.

There is Dr. Finch's wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh), a kibble-eating housewife addicted to the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows.

Finally, the is the prodigal son Neil Bookman (Joseph Fiennes), forced out of the home because he wouldn't listen to daddy. He is an adoptee who likes guys a little bit younger than he is about 21 years younger than his roughly 35 years.

Dr. Finch believes people become adults at 13, which means Augusten is

free to pursue a relationship with Neil while watching his mother's dependence on Dr. Finch and her rather hopeless lesbian relationships drive her over the edge.

Despite what would seem like a dismal tale of desperately unhappy people, the film, like Burroughs' writing, is laughout-loud funny. (Please forgive the movie review cliché.)

Adding to the startlingly A-list cast is the deft work by director-screenwriter Ryan Murphy, who is the head staff writer and frequent director of the FX series Nip/ Tuck.

Perhaps the movie's one failing is the lack of a sense of time, which may actually be deliberate. There is a Christmas tree in the Finches' living room, leading Augusten to ask, “Isn't it a bit early for Christmas?" Agnes replies, "You mean late. It's been up for two years."

Interestingly, this is the second prominent film Brian Cox has been in that portrays a relationship between an adult male and a teenage boy, although his pedophile in L.I.E. is far creepier than Joseph Fiennes' turn as Neil.

Cross' portrayal of the pubescent Augusten is adult enough that the discrepancy in their ages is not as much of an issue, and in that household, where adulthood is confirmed at so early an age, the two seem a decent couple. A decent couple of what, one can't say..

So, ignore Mother's advice. Running with Scissors can be a very good thing.

I plan to spend more time with my friends.

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