Plot
Young Augusten Burroughs absorbs experiences that could make for a shocking memoir: the son of an alcoholic father and an unstable mother, he's handed off to his mother's therapist, Dr. Finch, and spends his adolescent years as a member of Finch's bizarre extended family.
Release Year: 2006
Rating: 6.0/10 (14,860 voted)
Critic's Score: 52/100
Director:
Ryan Murphy
Stars: Joseph Cross, Annette Bening, Brian Cox
Storyline The story of how a boy was abandoned by his mother and how he, later, abandoned her. The year he'll be 14, the parents of Augusten Burroughs (1965- ) divorce, and his mother, who thinks of herself as a fine poet on the verge of fame, delivers him to the eccentric household of her psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. During that year, Augusten avoids school, keeps a journal, and practices cosmetology. His mother's mental illness worsens, he takes an older lover, he finds friendship with Finch's younger daughter, and he's the occasional recipient of gifts from an unlikely benefactor. Can he survive to come of age?
Writers: Ryan Murphy, Augusten Burroughs
Cast: Annette Bening
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Deirdre Burroughs
Brian Cox
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Dr. Finch
Joseph Fiennes
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Neil Bookman
Evan Rachel Wood
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Natalie Finch
Alec Baldwin
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Norman Burroughs
Joseph Cross
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Augusten Burroughs
Jill Clayburgh
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Agnes Finch
Gwyneth Paltrow
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Hope Finch
Gabrielle Union
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Dorothy
Patrick Wilson
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Michael Shephard
Kristin Chenoweth
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Fern Stewart
Dagmara Dominczyk
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Suzanne
Colleen Camp
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Joan
Jack Kaeding
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Six-Year-Old Augusten Burroughs
Gabriel Guedj
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Poo
Opening Weekend: $226,108
(USA)
(22 October 2006)
(8 Screens)
Gross: $6,754,898
(USA)
(19 November 2006)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
USA:
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USA:
(DVD)
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Argentina:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Julianne Moore was originally attached to play Deirdre Burroughs.
Goofs:
Anachronisms:
In the first scene with Deirdre's poetry circle, set in 1978, Dierdre says that Anne Sexton gave a poetry recital the week before. Sexton died in 1974.
Quotes: Deirdre Burroughs:
*Takes candle and bites it* Mmm... This is good
User Review
Running with Scissors is strange and psychotically contagious
Rating: 9/10
Running with Scissors reviewed by Sam Osborn
I've become all too wary of memoirs lately. Not because of the James
Frey debacle, but because they've become the literary equivalent of the
biopic at the movies. Just as I've grown tired of seeing the rise and
inevitable fall of infamous icons during Oscar season, I've grown tired
of plowing through the literary lives of men and women compelled to
account their abusive childhoods, sexual deviancy, problems with drugs
and alcohol, and, the real must, their harebrained families. The books
sell well because readers love gossip, scandal, and melodrama. Running
with Scissors has no shortage of such pulpy details, as its hero,
Augusten Burroughs, has all the makings of memoir sentimentality. He
was born into a selfish, dysfunctional family, adopted by his mother's
psychiatrist, attempted suicide, turned out to be gay, and was exposed
to sex at a young age under the hands of a man much past his age. His
life was, if nothing else, screwed up enough to put into a book. But
while I'm a pessimist to the genre, Running with Scissors is strange
and psychotically contagious.
To oversimplify the matter, the film is a collection of people dealing
with their issues. Heading up the Burroughs family is Norman Burroughs
(Alec Baldwin), a business man with the sedated lick of alcoholism
whose only wish seems to be to sidestep his wife's raging narcissism.
Dierdre (Annete Bening), his wife, is a selfish would-be writing
starlet whose lack of talent is constantly at odds with the confidence
that she deserves a Nobel Prize. Her failure she blames on the supposed
acts of sabotage by Norman, of which she confides in her only son
Augusten. The family begins counseling with Doctor Finch (Brian Cox),
the man who eventually adopts Augusten when Norman walks out and
Dierdre begins popping Valium like prescription Skittles. The Finch
family seems to be no upgrade though, as Agnes (Jill Clayburgh), the
mother, is first seen munching on dog kibble, Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow),
the favored daughter, is known to talk to her cat Freud, and Natalie
(Evan Rachel Wood), the second daughter, tries to open Augusten up by
using electro-shock therapy. Their home is an old-money palace painted
blazing pink, with various lawn furniture, cobbled windows, and a
Christmas tree that's been erect for over two years.
My Mother happens to be mildly obsessed with Augusten Burroughs. She
speaks of his stories and literary adventures as though they're the
loopy reveries of a second son she birthed into paperback. So several
months ago I took her to our hometown bookshop, The Boulder Bookstore,
to see Mr. Burroughs speak on his most recent book, Magical Thinking.
I'd read a few of his stories at my Mom's urgent requests and flipped
through a couple chapters of his first memoir (the film's source),
Running with Scissors, in preparation. I knew enough, I felt, to hold
my own in a book signing. But as the first hand was raised during the
Q&A segment of the presentation, a woman asked how Augusten's dog was
doing, how his partner was holding up, if they'd purchased that house
he mentioned, and if those shoes were still in mint condition. I was
obviously behind the curve. Mr. Burroughs has entrusted so much of his
intimate life with his writing. It's organic and swelling with humor
drawn from a frank self-awareness that doesn't embarrass him or his
readers. His audience isn't a third-party to his life, they're all his
closest friends; quite a job for rookie feature Writer/Director Ryan
Murphy.
Murphy approaches the material very cinematically, using every magic
trick offered to him by his technicians. This is no shaky,
documentary-style memoir that shreds cinema to the tatters of the
broken characters on screen. Murphy's characters are heightened to
hyperbolic altitude, but are anchored to a reality only gotten from the
pages of non-fiction accounting. His film is tightly-knit, too, with
every line of dialogue truly used and with characters' stories
intertwined into a family of glowing psychosis. It makes for a film
constructed from quirk and color, but Murphy's characters can't seem to
escape from being so human. They deal with their issues, but like
humans, rarely manage to solve them. It can be appalling and sometimes
painful, but Burroughs and Murphy's stories are just too lovely to turn
your back to.
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