Running with Scissors Review

Brian Cox and Annette Bening headline this off-the-wall '70s set flick which will probably only really strike a chord with fans of 'quirky' movies. The film is based on the author Augusten Burroughs' account of his rather unique childhood, when his mentally unstable mother sent him off to live with her eccentric therapist and his equally unusual family. Cox plays the unconventional therapist and family patriarch Dr. Finch, a man who very marches dances to the beat of his own drum while his family is every bit as odd; daughter Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow) is communicating with her late cat while her sister Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood) is showing classic signs of teenage rebellion. They all live in a huge pink mansion where housework seems to be an optional extra.

Obviously this isn't the best environment for an impressionable young chap - but it does prove ripe for some cracking performances. Cox and Bening especially shine as the convention-shattering shrink and his best client. Paltrow too is able to throw off the shackles and play it up as the ever-faithful Hope. But top honours must go to Jill Clayburgh as Finch's long-suffering wife as she forms the bridge between the wacky with the poignant.

Similar in ways to "The Royal Tenenbaums" (just without the laughs), "Running With Scissors" does feel at times like it's trying to be a bit too clever for it's own good which is a shame because one gets the feeling there's a decent film here trying to get out.