Running with Scissors – Does age group affect your take on a film?

I would have classed Running with Scissors – the film adaptation of Augusten Burroughs’ personal memoirs – a coming of age movie. A chance for us teens to empathise with Augusten’s continual embarrassment at his far from normal family; but also to feel some form of relief. I mean, no matter how strange you think your family is, I bet they don’t quite live up to the Finch household?! But then I looked around the Courtyard Theatre, only to see there were about 4-5 youths in the audience, myself included. The older (than me) audience members, then proceeded to roar with laughter at many of the moments I found particularly emotional or moving. Of course I found the film funny, it’s a comedy after all, but lots of it was terribly sad too. On several occasions I had to re-assess my reaction, was I reading too much into this film? Has studying psychology made me take things too seriously? But in the end, I concluded that I am far more likely to empathise with Augusten than an adult, simply because I’m a teenager myself. Different age groups read films in different ways. In which case, are adults are seeing their own children’s reactions in Augusten’s face, is that why they found it all so funny? I really don’t know why, perhaps someone (of any age group) can let me know. RV