Running with Scissors

Well-acted by the superb ensemble cast but there just isn't a likeable character amongst them to care about.

In the real world, mental illness is a serious problem. In this film, it gives everyone a license to run around like characters in a Lewis Carroll story -- all of it set to predictable pop hits from the 1970s.

Murphy's take on Burroughs' hellish childhood is tonally fractured, unleavened with black-as-pitch gallows yuks and -- very nearly its saving grace - a series of performances that pitch and yaw between 'normal' and utterly mad.

A few hysterical moments can't compensate for the prolonged weirdness that blankets the picture.