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This is the case of Running with Scissors, Ryan Murphy’s fascinating adaptation of Augusten Burroughs’ memoir.

The film takes place in the late 1970s, where psychotherapy and bell bottoms are about as omnipresent as Jimmy Carter. The story starts with a young Augusten Burroughs (Joseph Cross), a precocious tot who has a complete fascination with his mother, a bipolar lesbian played with tenacity by Annette Bening.

So distraught is Bening that she sends her son to live with Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), her therapist.

The film follows Burroughs as he comes to term with both his sexuality and his abandonment, and along the way it investigates the world of the normal and the psychotic, as each character seems to toe the line of mental well-being.

The film has flaws, however, and length emerges as one of them. Though it comes in at a seemingly brisk two hours, the film drags and lags in certain portions, particularly in transitional periods.

Murphy relies on a soundtrack stocked with 70s hits to exemplify the transient movement of a character reaching an epiphany. And while this is a rather trendy technique (the stupendous The Departed used this same style), it tends to slow down the manic pace of the rest of the movie, giving the film an odd, jerky feeling.

The film also has several story gaps, which can be expected from an adaptation of memoir. Because of the difficulty in shoving one’s life into celluloid, much of the history of Augusten’s father and his shrink are pushed away into the background, and the audience is left to fill in the gaps caused by this missing information.

The film balances screen time among its many intriguing characters, but because there are so many, the father and shrink become more like blank canvasses than complex players in this spiraling film.

However, other characterizations are so full and rich it’s difficult to complain; and it’s difficult not to recommend the film to friends.

Annette Bening, who is one of the finest actresses of this or any era, may be the best scenery-chewing actress in Hollywood, and she does it with such aplomb that no one will ever complain about overacting.

She is fully in grasp of her character, even when her character isn’t in grasp of her own sanity. Bening combines both motherly love and unplanned selfishness into one neat, unhinged package.

The rest of the cast is at the top of their game as well. Joseph Cross, who plays the title character, has the makings of a young Dustin Hoffman.

Joseph Fiennes, who has been dwarfed by his brother Ralph, is creepy and heartfelt as the schizophrenic pedophile with whom Augusten falls in love.

Even Gwyneth Paltrow, who took the least glamorous role in the movie as Finch’s Bible-thumping daughter, manages to create the kookiest goth chick since Wednesday Adams.

Despite the rather unusual filming techniques, this game cast puts together such a glam portrait of moviedom that it becomes impossible not to secretly root for the flick, hoping for better than what it delivered.

Indeed, don’t put Running with Scissors into a box. The film isn’t meant to be for the faint of heart or the masses, but instead for those who go to a movie and want to see something refreshing. It’s not solidly good nor solidly bad, however, it is solidly entertainingčwhat else could a filmgoer ask for?