Tidying up the mess for the sake of convention

At one point in Augusten Burroughs' life, he went to see a Lina Wertmüller film festival and commented on how odd it was that in French films, a clown shows up crying while an erstwhile heroine lays in the foreground. "I don't get it," he says, "Not yet, anyway." The genius of Burroughs' book is that there always seems to be something semi-normal going on in the foreground, while an odd and out-of-place clown seems to be crying the whole time in the background.\nBurroughs' off-kilter life was recounted for the first time in 2002 in his bestselling memoir "Running With Scissors." I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the recent film adaptation fails to pay the book its proper due. Director/screenwriter Ryan Murphy manages to get most of the laughs and quite a few of the heartbreaks into the film version. Sadly, he comes short of success by managing to only scratch the surface of Burroughs' truly fascinating life. Too often, he puts taut moments of melodrama in place of actual moments of truth in order to "clean-up" the narrative, making a genuinely atypical story standard for the sake of convention. \nJoseph Fiennes is convincing as the intense, obsessive Bookman. Brian Cox and Jill Clayburgh are believable as Finch and Agnes, both having been cast well. Gwyneth Paltrow is almost non-existent as the eldest daughter, Hope, barely coming to life as the complex and intriguing character she is meant to be. Annette Bening's performance is brilliant as usual -- no doubt the best of the adult roles in the film.\nIt is Joseph Cross and Evan Rachel Wood who steal the show as Augusten and Natalie, two smart and sad children trying desperately to create sanity for themselves in a world that is terminally insane.\nThe last 15 minutes of the movie are a trip into fantasy land, where sad and pivotal conversations take place and lead characters "find themselves" on the road to normalcy. Almost all of what happens is divergent from the book. Those who haven't read the memoir probably won't mind though.