by MATTHEW HAYS

With its strange cast and bestseller memoir origins, Running With Scissors has all of the ingredients to make for an off-kilter success. And there are some marvellously odd scenes in the film—director Ryan Murphy, who adapted Augusten Burroughs’ book of the same name, has kept the lively anecdotes that made the book so compelling intact in the screen version.

If Burroughs is to be believed—and in a post-James Frey world, that’s not always easy to do—then he had one helluva weird childhood and adolescence. His father, played here by Alec Baldwin, was a distant alcoholic who was tormented by his borderline wife, played by Annette Bening. Bening, always so brilliant at playing suburban insanity, here conveys the torment of a frustrated poet on the edge, someone so caught up in herself that she fails miserably as a parent.

With neither parent able to take care of their son (played with finesse by Joseph Cross), he is dumped—where else?—into the household of mom’s crackpot therapist (Brian Cox). His family is no calm and soothing oasis; instead, Burroughs has gone from frying pan to fire, navigating through the therapist’s strange wife (Jill Clayburgh), his bible-thumping, repressed daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow) and adopted son (Joseph Fiennes).

Running With Scissors has a great deal in its favour, including an undeniably kickass cast, fantastic art direction and a solid pop-music score.

But weird family melodramas have a critical mass of lunacy. Running With Scissors, the movie, seems to be suffering from its own identity crisis. Are we supposed to believe that every scene in this film actually happened? Is this supposed to be emotionally wrenching? Or just flat-out weird? It’s odd, all right, but at a certain point, Running With Scissors lost me. Murphy is attempting to create a very specific atmosphere with his film, and it’s tantamount to a very intricate high-wire act: a movie that pushes the boundaries of realism into the surreal while also touching us with the sad story at its core. Ultimately, Running With Scissors felt strange, but oddly lacking in emotional connection.

Running with Scissors opens Friday, Oct. 27

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