Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- Joseph CrossAugusten Burroughs
- Annette BeningDeirdre Burroughs
- Brian CoxDr. Finch
- Gwyneth PaltrowHope Finch
- Joseph FiennesNeil Bookman
- Evan Rachel WoodNatalie Finch
- Alec BaldwinNorman Burroughs
- Jill ClayburghAgnes Finch
- Gabrielle UnionDorothy
- Patrick WilsonMichael Shephard
Recommendations
- 70
Village Voice
Like the book, this deadpan celebration of neurosis makes a valiant effort to repress its comedy--which of course makes it funnier. - 70
The New York Times
Ms. Bening's precise, pitiless tracing of her character's decline from feisty defiance to pathetic, overmedicated self-delusion gives the film an emotional weight it might not otherwise have. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
Too outlandish to be fully convincing, this adaptation of the best-selling memoir sacrifices subtlety for broad laughs. - 50
Variety
Writer-director Ryan Murphy strives mightily to capture the bracing hilarity, pathos and surreal incident of Burroughs' bestselling memoir, but this rudderless adaptation never gets a firm grip on the author's deadpan tone or episodic narrative style. - 50
Entertainment Weekly
Watching Running With Scissors the movie instead of reading Running With Scissors the best-selling memoir by Augusten Burroughs is like running with a spatula, or maybe some weird toast tongs. - 50
Wall Street Journal
Ms. Bening takes her part and acts it all over the place, while Ms. Paltrow and Ms. Wood do their best theater of the absurd. It is left to Ms. Clayburgh, in a performance free of vanity and artifice, to find the movie's heart. - 50
USA Today
Running With Scissors lacks the edge of Augusten Burroughs' best-selling memoir. The result is an inconsistent tragicomedy that attempts to be cut from the same darkly humorous cloth as "American Beauty," but fails. - 40
L.A. Weekly
One expects neither subtlety nor surprise from a scenario boasting a household pet named Freud. If there's any reason at all to see Running With Scissors, it' Bening.
