Running with Scissors (film)

Infobox Film
name = Running with Scissors

|
caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Ryan Murphy
producer = Ryan Murphy
Augusten Burroughs
Brad Pitt
Brad Grey
writer = Augusten Burroughs
Ryan Murphy
starring = Annette Bening
Brian Cox
Joseph Fiennes
Evan Rachel Wood
Alec Baldwin
Joseph Cross
music = James S. Levine
cinematography = Christopher Baffa
editing = Byron Smith
distributor = TriStar Pictures
Plan B Entertainment
released = October 27, 2006
runtime = Theatrical cut
116 min.
DVD
122 min.
country = United States
language = English
budget = $12 million
gross = $6,754,898
website = http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/runningwithscissors/
imdb_id = 0439289Infobox movie certificates
Argentina = 13
Australia = MA
Brazil = 14
Canada (Ontario) = 14A
Finland = K-15
Germany = 12
Ireland = 16
Malaysia = Banned
Netherlands = 6
New_Zealand = R16
Singapore = M18
South_Korea = 15
United_Kingdom = 15
United_States = R

"Running With Scissors" is a Golden Globe-nominated 2006 comedy-drama film based on the novel of the same name by Augusten Burroughs directed by Ryan Murphy starring Joseph Cross, Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel Wood,and Alec Baldwin.

Plot

Based on the memoir "Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs, the film is a semi-autobiographical account of Burroughs' childhood. His mother (an aspiring poet, played by Annette Bening, who idolises Anne Sexton), perceiving an ill-fated upbringing, places him under the care of her unorthodox psychiatrist, Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), the eccentric patriarch of an oddball family.

At the age of twelve, Burroughs (played by Joseph Cross) finds himself in Victorian squalor living an unconventional youth amongst the doctor’s family, and is subject to irregular visits by his increasingly unsound mother. At one point, Burroughs befriends Neil Bookman (Joseph Fiennes), Finch's adopted 33-year-old son, and the two enter an erratic sexual relationship.

The story is of a childhood in which the boundary between reality and fantasy is ignored and finally broken; as, ultimately, is the irreplaceable bond between mother and son.

In an interview regarding the movie, Augusten Burroughs stated that he felt the movie was about one's quest for family.

Divergence from book

The film diverges from the book in several important respects. A key aspect of the book is the narrator's progress through adolescence, but the film has one actor, Joseph Cross (age 19), who plays the central role throughout most of the movie, including scenes where the character is age 12 or 13. The movie shies away from many of the sexual aspects of the book. The nature of Augusten's first sexual episode with Bookman is different (the film does not portray it as a rape as the book does), the nature of Augusten's discovery of his mother's lesbianism is changed (this is presented in the film as the discovery of her kissing her lover, but in the book he walks in on them engaged in oral sex), and the allegation of Dr. Finch's rape of Deirdre is transformed into an embezzlement of money. On balance this gives the movie more of a PG-13 feel than the book would seem to warrant and substantially alters the forces that shaped the writer. The character of Bookman also takes on a dangerous element in the film that he lacks in the book (at the end of the movie he is shown hovering over a sleeping Dr. Finch with a pair of scissors, but this does not occur in the book). Moreover, the film glosses over and/or distorts much of the book's philosophy. For example, the film has Augusten state that life is "just a series of surprises," whereas in the book he has a somewhat bleaker yet more comical tone: "Our lives are one endless stretch of misery punctuated by processed fast foods and the occasional crisis or amusing curiosity." Another divergence from the book is that Natalie, Evan Rachel Wood, is described as being fat in the novel, but is clearly not overweight in the film.

Cast

*Annette Bening as Deidre Burroughs
*Brian Cox as Dr. Finch
*Joseph Fiennes as Neil Bookman
*Evan Rachel Wood as Natalie Finch
*Alec Baldwin as Norman Burroughs
*Joseph Cross as Augusten Burroughs
*Jill Clayburgh as Agnes Finch
*Gwyneth Paltrow as Hope Finch
*Gabrielle Union as Dorothy
*Patrick Wilson as Michael Shephard
*Kristin Chenoweth as Fern Stewart
*Colleen Camp as Joan

oundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was released on September 26, 2006, a month and a day prior to the film's release..

# "Pick Up the Pieces" - Average White Band
# "Blinded by the Light" - Manfred Mann's Earth Band
# "The Things We Do For Love" - 10cc
# "Mr. Blue" - Catherine Feeny
# "One Less Bell to Answer" - The Fifth Dimension
# "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps) - Nat King Cole
# "Poetry Man" - Phoebe Snow
# "Bennie and the Jets" - Elton John
# "Year of the Cat" - Al Stewart
# "O Tannenbaum" - Vince Guaraldi Trio
# "A Great Ocean Liner" - James Levine
# "Stardust" - Nat King Cole
# "Teach Your Children" - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

References

External links

* [http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/runningwithscissors/ Official site]
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