RWS: A Postscript.

First things first: a great big :::thank you::: is in order to everyone who commented on my snazzy new blog design. As a new knitblogger, I am super happy to see that there are people out there reading the darn thing. Secondly, I've come to realize after posting my brief opinions about Running With Scissors a few days ago that I didn't provide any explanation as to why I walked out of the movie. I still can't believe I walked out, by the way. It. Was. Just. That. Bad. So, I'm going to explain myself, particularly because some of you who left me nice banner comments also wondered what it was about the movie I found so odious. I am happy to oblige, if it saves any of you the time, hassle, and disappointment of seeing a totally bad movie.

Now, I should firstly admit that I haven't read Burroughs' memoir, though I had planned to, until the fateful viewing this weekend. (Usually, I am not encumbered by poor movie knock-offs of novels, but, it's so hard not to be, in this case). I'd heard great things about the book - adjectives that ususally make my ears perk up: dry, sardonic, witty, sharp, ironic, black, satirical - you get the picture. Clearly, being described thus, a movie based on said book was sure to be right up my alley. I can't speak for the book, but the movie fell so far short of these adjectives it was painful. Like a train wreck on screen...during most of the movie, I wanted to look away, but I just couldn't because it was so freakin' bad.

Okay, so what exactly did I find so fault-worthy? Here's the few adjectives I could come up with: ridiculous, over the top, unrealistic, and unendurable. 1) Ridiculous in that there were too many crazy, off-the-wall things going on to find any true humor or scathing value in any of it. 2) Over the top in that, again, too many kooky scenes one after another to have any sense of connectedness or to grip the viewer and evoke any true emotion in the viewer. I felt very passive and uninterested in all of the characters through the whole thing. 3) Unrealistic in that the situations, for the most part, were not grounded in any sense of actuality or reality. Fine for some movies, like The Fountain, which I can't wait to see, but *not* fine for a *memoir,* in my opinion. 4) Unendurable in that the movie was a senseless, disconnected string of kooky scenes, one after another...like a painfully long montage of sights and actions that results in a great big headache. Simply put, it was overdone and overlong. And did I mention the super-depressingness of it all? I am certainly one who enjoys a good, depressing movie - happy endings are overrated in my book - but not if it's not grounded in reality in any way, and RWS is just depressing in a very vacuous way.

My advice? It's simple, really; solutions are possible, people! If you want to see a *good* movie about a whacked-out nut-job, forget Annette Bening in RWS, and go watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Whack-job. Check. Emotive and connected. Check. Depressing realism tempered with comedy. Check. Excellent, awesome film. Check. I'd also suggest Requiem For a Dream for similar reasons.

Okay, tirade over. I leave you all with my favorite Rotten Tomatoes quote: "The film trips over its willy-nilly story line and falls on its own blade." I feel somewhat vindicated knowing that it got destroyed on Rotten Tomatoes.

PS: I rescind my previous statement that implied that I would ever see Let's Go to Prison. Under any circumstances. Because that just wouldn't happen. Under *any* circumstances.