A Goreyesque Family

I liked this movie, which the critics hated with a passion.

I predict the tide will turn in about ten years.

Not that it's a classic, but it's very good.

I see a Gorey influence in the imagining of the Finch home, decor, manners, etc.

The movie departs from the book considerably.

The book involved endless lawsuits and charges of libel, misrepresentation, etc. by numerous parties, which is I believe about par for any Augusten Burroughs book purporting to represent true life events and people.

I tend to think it's poetic license in all cases, but I tend to give authors the benefit of the doubt.

Annette Bening is amazing in here, as she often is.

Her performance in The Grifters is one of my all-time favorites.

But this infinitely frustrating, infinitely pathetic poet she created here is also marvelous, although Augusten's real mother did not see herself at all in the creation.

I love the set designs and props in this movie. They got the seventies down to perfection. I salute them, whoever they are.