Running with Scissors | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ryan Murphy |
Screenplay by | Ryan Murphy |
Based on | Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Christopher Baffa |
Edited by | Byron Smith, ACE |
Music by | James S. Levine |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release date |
|
Running time | 116 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $7 million [1] |
Running with Scissors is a 2006 American comedy drama film written and directed by Ryan Murphy, based on Augusten Burroughs' 2002 memoir of the same name, and starring Joseph Cross, Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel Wood, Alec Baldwin, Jill Clayburgh and Gwyneth Paltrow. The semi-autobiographical account of Burroughs' childhood (when his real name was still Christopher Robison), based on his best-selling book, received mixed reviews as a film.
Augusten Burroughs' mother, Deirdre, who wishes to become a famous poet, suffers from severe mood swings and erratic behavior. Augusten's alcoholic father, Norman, proves to be of no help. By the time he is a teenager, Norman has moved out and Deirdre sends Augusten to live with her psychiatrist, Dr. Finch, who becomes his legal guardian. Dr. Finch is the eccentric patriarch of an oddball family, which consists of his submissive wife Agnes, religious older daughter Hope, and his rebellious younger daughter Natalie, who is slightly older than Augusten.
Augusten finds it hard to adjust to living with the Finches and the irregular weekend visits home with his increasingly unsound mother. After confessing to Natalie that he is gay, Augusten befriends Neil Bookman, Finch's patient and adopted 33-year-old son. The two begin an erratic sexual relationship quickly after meeting; Augusten is 14 at the time.
Consistent with a confidence game seen with the family of Neil—and with a 41-year-old patient who abused Natalie, and with young adult patient Dorothy Ambrose—Dr. Finch manipulates Deirdre into signing over her child support money to him. By the time of Augusten's 15th birthday, Deirdre has established a relationship with her living companion Dorothy ("I've always wanted a daughter"), leaving Augusten feeling like his mother no longer wants him, while also dealing with the negative effects of Neil's schizophrenia and Dorothy's animosity.
A few years later, the still-teenaged Augusten leaves for New York to become a writer. He says goodbye to his mother and goes to the bus station. Agnes, with whom he has developed a caring relationship, arrives and gives him the money she has saved.
In a mid-credits vignette, it is shown that Dr. Finch lost his license due to insurance fraud and died in 2000, Agnes went to work in a nursing home, Natalie earned a degree in psychology, Hope worked with her dad until his death, Norman re-established contact with Augusten before he died in 2005, Deirdre remains estranged from her son, Neil was never heard from again, and Augusten (the real Augusten, seen onscreen sitting beside the actor playing Augusten) wrote a book.
The review aggregator website Metacritic gave Running with Scissors a score of 52 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [2] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 31% approval rating, based on 133 reviews, with an average score of 5/10. The site's consensus states: "Despite a few great performances, the film lacks the sincerity and emotional edge of Burroughs' well-loved memoir." [3]
Award | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Boston Society of Film Critics | Best Supporting Actor | Alec Baldwin | 2nd place |
Critics' Choice Movie Awards | Best Young Performer | Joseph Cross | Nominated |
GLAAD Media Award | Outstanding Film – Wide Release | Nominated | |
Golden Globe Award | Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy | Annette Bening | Nominated |
Hollywood Film Awards | Breakthrough Directing | Ryan Murphy | Won |
Satellite Award | Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | Joseph Cross | Won |
Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | Annette Bening | Nominated | |
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association | Best Actress | Annette Bening | Won |
Best Supporting Actress | Jill Clayburgh | Nominated | |
Best Overlooked Film | Won | ||
The soundtrack for the film was released on September 26, 2006, a month prior to the film's release. [4]
An adaptation of Telepopmusik's "Another Day" was also an underlying theme that recurred several times throughout the film. "Waltz for Debby", "Very Early", and "Re: Person I Knew", by Bill Evans are used in the film as well. The song playing in the "Stew" scene is "d-moll" by the duo Tosca from their album Delhi 9; this theme is repeated throughout the film.
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and businesswoman. The daughter of filmmaker Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner, she established herself as a leading lady appearing in mainly mid-budget and period films during the 1990s and early 2000s, before transitioning to blockbusters and franchises. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 period romantic comedy film directed by John Madden, written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, and produced by Harvey Weinstein. It stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Ben Affleck and Judi Dench. The film depicts a fictional love affair involving playwright William Shakespeare (Fiennes) and Viola de Lesseps (Paltrow) while Shakespeare was writing Romeo and Juliet. Several characters are based on historical figures, and many of the characters, lines, and plot devices allude to Shakespeare's plays.
A Perfect Murder is a 1998 American crime thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Viggo Mortensen. It is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film Dial M for Murder, though the characters' names have been changed and much of the plot has been rewritten and altered from its original form. Loosely based on the play by Frederick Knott, the screenplay was written by Patrick Smith Kelly.
Shallow Hal is a 2001 American romantic comedy film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black about a man who falls in love with a 300-pound (140-kilogram) woman after being hypnotized into only seeing a person's inner beauty. Directed by the Farrelly brothers, it was filmed in and around Charlotte, North Carolina as well as Sterling and Princeton, Massachusetts at Wachusett Mountain. The supporting cast features Jason Alexander, Joe Viterelli, and Susan Ward. Shallow Hal was released in theaters on November 9, 2001 by 20th Century Fox, and grossed $141 million against a $40 million budget.
Sylvia is a 2003 British biographical drama film directed by Christine Jeffs and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, and Michael Gambon. It tells a story based on the real-life romance between prominent poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. The film begins with their meeting at Cambridge in 1956 and ends with Sylvia Plath's suicide in 1963.
Possession is a 2002 romantic mystery drama film written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart. It is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by British author A. S. Byatt, who won the Booker Prize for it the year it was published.
View from the Top is a 2003 American romantic comedy film directed by Bruno Barreto and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Candice Bergen, Joshua Malina, Mark Ruffalo, Rob Lowe, Mike Myers, and Kelly Preston. The film follows a young woman (Paltrow) from a small town who sets out to fulfill her dream of becoming a flight attendant.
Augusten Xon Burroughs is an American writer best known for his New York Times bestselling memoir Running with Scissors (2002).
Fever Pitch is a 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by the Farrelly brothers. It stars Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon and is a remake of the British 1997 film of the same title. Nick Hornby, who had written the original 1992 book and the 1997 screenplay adaptation, acted as an executive producer for the American remake.
Flesh and Bone is a 1993 American neo noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Steve Kloves that stars Meg Ryan, Dennis Quaid and James Caan. Gwyneth Paltrow is featured in an early role, for which she received some praise.
Running with Scissors is a 2002 memoir by American writer Augusten Burroughs. The book tells the story of Burroughs's bizarre childhood life after his mother, a chain-smoking aspiring poet, sent him to live with her psychiatrist. Running with Scissors spent eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Emma is a 1996 British-American period comedy film based on the 1815 novel of the same name by Jane Austen. Written and directed by Douglas McGrath, and produced by Patrick Cassavetti and Steven Haft, the film stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Alan Cumming, Toni Collette, Ewan McGregor, and Jeremy Northam.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 2005 American horror film directed by David Lee Fisher, who also co-wrote the film's screenplay, and is a remake of the 1920 silent film of the same name. It was released in the U.S. at the ScreamFest Film Festival on October 22, where it won three prizes: the Audience Choice Award, Best Cinematography and Best Special Effects.
Joseph Michael Cross is an American actor and producer. He began work as a child actor, starring in the 1998 films Desperate Measures, Wide Awake, and Jack Frost. He won the Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture for Running with Scissors (2006), and co-starred in Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Untraceable (2008), Milk (2008), and Lincoln (2012).
Dry is a memoir written by American writer Augusten Burroughs. It describes the author's battle with alcoholism. Dry was written before Running with Scissors, but was published second. Dry reached number 24 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Hardcover Nonfiction.
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can is a 1982 American biographical film directed by Jack Hofsiss and starring Jill Clayburgh. The screenplay by David Rabe is based on the memoir of the same title by Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Gordon, whose addiction to and difficult withdrawal from Valium serves as the basis of the plot.
Shout is a 1991 American musical romance film directed by Jeffrey Hornaday and starring John Travolta as a music teacher who introduces rock and roll to a west Texas home for boys in 1955.
Thanks for Sharing is a 2012 American comedy-drama film directed by Stuart Blumberg, who co-wrote the screenplay with Matt Winston. The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad, Joely Richardson, Patrick Fugit, Carol Kane, and Pink, with a supporting cast including Michaela Watkins, Emily Meade, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.
Mortdecai is a 2015 American action comedy film directed by David Koepp and written by Eric Aronson. The film is adapted from the novel series Mortdecai written by Kyril Bonfiglioli. It stars Johnny Depp in the title role and features Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, Paul Bettany and Jeff Goldblum. Released by Lionsgate on January 23, 2015, Mortdecai was a box office flop, grossing $47.3 million against its estimated $60 million budget, and was critically panned.
The Politician is an American comedy-drama television series created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan and released on Netflix. The trio also serves as executive producers with Alexis Martin Woodall, Ben Platt, and Gwyneth Paltrow. The series centers on the story of Payton Hobart (Platt), a wealthy Santa Barbaran, and each season revolves around a different political race his character is involved in.