In the real world, mental illness is a serious problem. In this film, it gives everyone a license to run around like characters in a Lewis Carroll story -- all of it set to predictable pop hits from the 1970s.
Running with Scissors
Do not disturb them. They already are.
2006 · 1h 56m · R
Comedy, Drama
Directed by
Ryan Murphy
Overview
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.
Director and cast
- Ryan Murphy Director
- Annette Bening as Deirdre Burroughs
- Brian Cox as Dr. Finch
- Joseph Cross as Augusten Burroughs
- Joseph Fiennes as Neil Bookman
- Evan Rachel Wood as Natalie Finch
- Alec Baldwin as Norman Burroughs
- Jill Clayburgh as Agnes Finch
- Gwyneth Paltrow as Hope Finch
- Gabrielle Union as Dorothy
- Patrick Wilson as Michael Shephard
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
As dysfunctional family movies go, this is one skip. It doesn't just run with the scissors, it falls on them.
Running with Scissors looks great, and works fine when Bening is on screen; otherwise, it's off-balance, teetering where it should hold steady.
If the book was deadpan, the movie is more -- or less -- dead.
This is an Igby Goes Down without the laughs, a morbid miscalculation of The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou size.
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