rev_f_runscissors

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS
annette benning / alex baldwin / jill clayburgh

as reviewed by Jack Crompton at Amazon.com, May 29, 2008

Not your typical film entertainment...

I just watched this film and I have to say I'm rather stunned. I'm not sure what to say about it. Good or bad seems kinda irrelevant. But powerful, it is.

On one hand, once could say it’s a black comedy about human relationship dysfunction. On the other, its a vicious parody on the mental health arena. On the third hand (ok, we'll need a few more hands here...), its completely insane, and one scene is more insane than the preceding one. We're talking out of the box lunacy here. The sobering realization is, there ARE people this nuts in the world. In fact, the world is full of them!

Ultimately, I think I have to give this a five star rating because it really had riveted me for the entire 2-plus hours. I think the acting was quite excellent by all characters: most were convincingly miserable.

I can understand some of the comments expressed here at Amazon.com about the film being out of balance and having over-the-top despicable characters. Yes, Annette Benning as the mother plays a totally self-absorbed, narcisistic nut case. But there is something very deep that was being brought out in the film: it has something to do with the basic human need for love and the failure of fulfillment by those who are 'supposed to' love us: (family, spouse, etc.) All the characters in this film show the pain of that in one form or another, and thus this film connects to all of us at a very vulnerable level.

I gotta say, Jill Clayburgh as Agnes reveals a noble character eventually, near the films end that is quite touching and pretty surprising. The film deals with horrific relationship issues that are all shrouded in comedy, yet one can't really laugh without restraint because we know that we are talking about real life here, and the pain these people epitomize is an all too real reality. For the average person, this movie is sure to hit close to home on some level and I can imagine some will not be able to watch it for that reason.

The son and main character, Augusten eventually frees himself, extricates himself out of his emotional dependence on his mother and breaks her manipulative power over him, thus freeing himself out of his prison. Lots to contemplate here behind the comedy. I think it's a brave piece of storytelling.

So, this is not a feel good movie, although it's not without it's redeeming values. Indeed, some of it sickening, yet this is what life is made of: the predators and the exploited, who in turn become predators. But not all follow the well-worn path of dysfunction, and perhaps that's the film's most redeeming realization. In the end we are faced with the choice to rise beyond the hand we are dealt.

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