Running With Scissors

Last night I went with Kimmi K to see the film adaptation of Augusten Burroughs memoir Running With Scissors. I have been waiting a long time to see this and was very excited. Sadly, I'm not sure if I can recommend this movie. See here's the thing - I think the only people who will really like this movie will be fans of the book. If you haven't read it, then a lot will be lost. It's not that it was bad AT ALL. In fact, it was very true to the book and visually very fun. The casting was pretty dead on, although I felt at times that some of the actors were a bit too old for the roles( i.e. Gwenneth Paltrow as Hope). The acting by all was superb, especially Annette Benning (who plays Augusten's psychopathic mom Dierdre) who will undoubtly be nominated for an Oscar, if not win. Plus I love Evan Rachel Wood who played Natalie Finch. One of the main problems with the script was that it was SUPER DARK (and I usually love dark) - MUCH darker than the book. A lot of the comedic elements in the book tended to either be left out or didn't translate well enough to the screen. Also, this felt like more of the story of Dierdre than Augusten (I think this really had to do with the fact that Annette is so strong in the role and kind of swallows up Joseph Cross who plays the young Augusten). It's strange, the story felt completely different from the book while at the same time feeling exactly the same. Ah, the powers of editing. In this end I'll give this one a bipolar thumbs up. I'm now just hoping they will continue on with the series and bring "Dry" to the big screen.