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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 9383
Released: February 6, 2007 |
| Our Price: $3.47 |
| Used Price: $1.99 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Based on the personal memoirs of Augusten Burroughs, Running with Scissors is a wickedly funny, brave and moving tale of surviving a most unusual childhood. Augusten's (Joseph Cross) mother (Annette Bening) is a deluded aspiring post with bipolar disorder whose marriage to his dad (Alec Baldwin) is in ruins. Soon, she is seeing a very eccentric therapist named Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), while Augusten is left in the care of Finch's wackly family, including his tightly-wound daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow). Abandoned by his parents and adopted by the Finches, he finds a kindred spirit in youngest daughter Natalie (Even Rachel Wood) and motherly support from Finch's long suffering wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh). Constantly recording the events of his life in his journals as a way to cope, Augusten finds himself avoiding school, learning about love from an older man (Joseph Fiennes), and making big decisions at the tender age of fifteen.
Description of Running With Scissors:
Annette Bening is the stand-out highlight in this dysfunctional "family" comedy based on the bestselling memoir by Augusten Burroughs. Although fans of the book may be slightly disappointed with the film's uneven and somewhat campy rendition of Burroughs' twisted adolescence in the 1970s, there's plenty of pleasure to be found in the work of an excellent cast led by Bening, who gives a subtle dare-to-hate-me performance as Burroughs' mother Diedre, a would-be poet who's so aloof about her teenage son Augusten (played by fresh-faced newcomer Joseph Cross, from Flags of Our Fathers) that she allows him to be legally adopted into the eccentric family of her psychiatrist, Dr. Finch (Brian Cox). As the half-crazed Finch overmedicates Diedre into a haze of semi-conscious madness, he also turns Augusten's life upside down while his wife (Jill Clayburgh) and daughters (Gwyneth Paltrow, Evan Rachel Wood) indulge their own eccentricities and Augusten enters into an intimate relationship with one of Finch's adopted patients (played by Joseph Fiennes).
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As adapted and directed by Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy, Running with Scissors lacks the singular voice of Burroughs' dryly comedic first-person narrative, but even as the film struggles to find a consistent tone, it's so full of wacky behavior that you can't help laughing. It's a messy, patchwork quilt of a movie, blessed by authentically garish '70s production design and a soundtrack of familiar '70s hits. In rendering Burroughs' indelible portrait of weak, irresponsible adults and the people they victimize, Murphy and his well-chosen cast (which also includes Alec Baldwin as Diedre's ex-husband) find moments of touching pathos amidst the madness. For her part, Bening delivers an acclaimed performance that gives the film a dramatic weight it otherwise lacks. The rest is for anyone who enjoys a laugh at the freak-show expense of damaged and damaging characters. --Jeff Shannon
Stills from Running with Scissors (click for larger image)
More Running with Scissors on Amazon.com
The Book |
More Films staring Annette Bening |
More Films about Eccentric Families |
Running With Scissors Reviews:
not by the book, but captures the spirit of the book 
2009-10-13 - An exceptionally well-done adaptation of the book. Unlike a typical film, where the screenwriter thinks he or she knows better than the original bestselling author, Ryan Murphy (who also directed and produced this film) trusts the original material enough to adapt the majority of it. The casting for this movie is superb too - from the surprising appearance of Joseph Fiennes as the mentally deranged 35-year-old Bookman, who has an affair with the protagonist, to Annette Bening cast as the protagonist's mother, a woman who comes further apart at the seams with each scene we see her in to Rachel Evan Wood and Gwyneth Paltrow as the perfect fit sisters and daughters of the psychiatrist who adopts the main character.
An uncomfortable, yet valuable life lesson reminder 
2009-10-12 - Because I have seen opportunistic therapists and a greedy Denver divorce attorney take advantage of and harm my family, the movie reminds me that we must make our own decisions when seeking assistance from doctors, therapists, and lawyers and always to get second and third independent opinions when unsure. For me, the movie reminds us to limit the influence of these and other professionals so that they serve as informational consultants to, not authoritarian directors of our lives.
My synopsis of Running with Scissors:
An angry spouse blames the other spouse
and projects "violent tendencies" onto the other spouse.
The therapist takes the side of the angry spouse
for self benefit for money and more,
works to inflame issues,
works to split couple,
pushes drugs (valium).
The therapist and lawyer take control,
leave client in much worse shape, physically, psychologically, and financially,
and leave children in much worse shape, too.
Too bad the therapist does not challenge the client to understand and dispute her irrational beliefs per Albert Ellis.
In 1968, Albert Ellis wrote "Is Psychoanalysis Harmful?" in Psychiatric Opinion, Vol 5, No. 1, January 1986, pp. 16-25, (revised 2002, available from the Albert Ellis Institute).
He writes:
"Probably the greatest harm that psychoanalysis does is its tendency to sidetrack clients from what they had better do to improve and to give them a "good" excuse not to work hard at helping themselves."
"Expression of hostility, moreover, is one of the best psychological copouts. By convincing herself that other people are awful and that they deserve to be hated, the client can easily ignore her own maladaptive behavior and self-loathing and can nicely avoid doing anything to look into her own heart and to change her irrational thinking and her dysfunctional feelings and acts."
"By failing to show the client how to change her anger-creating views and by encouraging her to become more hostile in many instances, it tends to harm probably the majority of analytic clients (or should we say victims?)."
"Psychoanalysis...is such a long-winded, time-consuming, expensive process that it often takes many of the best years of clients' lives and prevents them from using these years productively."
Good actors in search of a purpose 
2009-10-06 - Make no mistake: Annette Bening does a fantastic job here as the mentally unbalanced, frustrated poet, and mother of the real life protagonist, Augusten Burroughs. Alec Baldwin does a nice turn as the alky father, while Paltrow, Wood, Cox, et. al. portray the messy and crazy Finch family which adopts Augusten for a while. Joseph Fiennes is also great in his role as Augusten's sometime lover.
Sure, it's a great cast, but the year that it covers seems to drag on and on, with pervasive musical interludes, an unbelievable portrait of the Finches and their "house," and it is a chore to get through this film. There seems to be no point or purpose, there is very little humor, and it is quite unsatisfying as a memoir.
Too bad these actors are wasted.
More Like 3.5 - Maybe 4
2009-09-15 - It's hard for me to rate this movie, maybe I should've gone higher. Watching this was the first time I've ever liked a movie better than it's book. To me (and I'm in the minority on this) the book seemed unbelievable. A huge credit to the actors in this film. You could see their motives on their faces, they made unconscionable things human and believable. I don't know if anyone got an award for this, but many certainly should have. Especially Annette Benning. When I read the book, to me the mother was practically soul-less. I couldn't understand how any mother could abandon her child the way she did, she seemed to be a monster. Watching the movie brought to mind a whole host of things I hadn't considered... the drugs that were being prescribed to women during that time, what it must've felt like to be at the beginnings of women's full freedom. The freedom to do anything and the burden of doing everything are just par for the course to my generation, but to women in the 70's it must've been a strange overwhelming, new world. I imagine nervous breakdowns were all the rage.
The down sides for me was it felt a little slow at times and certain things were not explained very well through the story. If you research the good doctor you'll find out that some things were flat out changed or skipped over & believe it or not he actually comes out in a BETTER light in both the movie and the book. It seems unreasonable, shocking or patently false but a little googling confirms an awful lot that you see here. Strange but true. I also didn't like the Disney-esque change from the book. Although, since Augusten's life had so few bright spots the movie might've been too difficult to watch without a little sunshine.
I'd recommend this to someone looking to see a quirky drama or someone engaged in women's studies. If one is especially sensitive to the subjects of molestation, homosexuality or fecal matter, this should proabably be skipped. (I certainly could've lived without seeing some of this.) I'd also recommend that anyone watching the movie also read the book and do a little surfing around to get a little more background on the people represented herein.
One last small thing was the house... it was exactly what I pictured as a read. I've never had a film feel like it popped out of my own mind before. Many props to Augusten for providing such a detailed description of the house and to the set-makers for bringing to full life.
Excellent!!!! 
2009-08-25 - Thank you for your quick handling of our order. It was received before expected and was very happily received.
