Movie review: Running with scissors

Augusten Burroughs' memoir of the same name, the story of his sordid, increasingly unstructured childhood is thoroughly well-acted, certainly explicitly set in its late 1970s period, and, despite the best intentions of talented television director, Ryan Murphy, only marginally watchable. The period music, wardrobe and set design, to me, while well-intentioned and researched, seemed a little intrusive and stagy. Annette Bening is a contemptible mother, Bryan Cox plays well a creepy surrogate father and analyst, I enjoy everything about Alec Baldwin, Joseph Fiennes was sympathetic and hardly recognizable from his Shakespeare in Love facade, and the lead, Joseph Cross, seemed appropriately stoically reserved. Notable, though, is how Jill Clayburgh took on a decidedly unattractive appearance, much like Vanessa Redgrave did for Venus, and was the strongest, most stable adult in the film; Clayburgh's Agnes Finch is largely responsible for redeeming the movie near the end, and left me with less than the sour taste I'd had throughout. Still, for how heroic Mr. Burroughs is to survive somewhat intact from this upbringing, the subject matter isn't any easier to watch.