Language: English
Cast: Annette Bening (Deirdre Burroughs), Brian Cox (Dr. Finch), Gwyneth Paltrow (Hope Finch), Joseph Fiennes (Neil Bookman), Alec Baldwin (Norman Burroughs)
Producers: Ryan Murphy, Dede Gardner, Brad Pitt and Brad Grey
Director: Ryan Murphy
Writing credits: Ryan Murphy based on the memoirs of Augusten Burroughs
Release Date: October 20, 2006
Production House: TriStar Pictures
Running Time: 116 minutes
Rating: R

Review

‘Running With Scissors’ is the celluloid version of Augusten Burroughs's best-seller. A movie that lays out the weaknesses and lack of judgment visible in characters of adults, as experienced by a mature and intelligent teenager. Transposing the story from the pages of the memoir is Ryan Murphy - the creator of the successful serial Nip/Tuck. He ably guides 20-year old Joseph Cross to play the victim/observer – Augusten - of his delusional mother. Annette Benning and Alec Baldwin play the careless parents of Augusten in the tale that leads to the emotionally neglected Augusten into the home of his mother, Deirdre’s, psychiatrist – played by Brian Cox. Dierdre meanwhile pursues her fantasy of being a celebrated author while her husband goes through the movie in an alcohol induced fog.


The story then moves to the house that looks like it has been hit by a whirlwind – that of the psychiatrist and joins Augusten’s in his adventures with the doctor’s daughters Natalie and Hope.

A hotchpotch of stories and great performances that somehow don’t succeed in conveying the tragicomedy that is Augusten’s life – to the viewer, the movie is dark and appalling. Adding to the grotesqueness is Joseph Fiennes as Augusten’s lover and Deidre’s involvement with her charlatan of a shrink and other extra-marital jaunts even as she completely alienates her son.

The movie looses some of its emotional impact that the book had where Cross’s character is left more an observer than the victim on film. Running with Scissors overall is a movie that manages to confuse the audience even as it chronicles the mess that adults make of their lives hurting innocent and sensitive children in the process – warping then for life!