Running with Scissors

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. Plot Burroughs’ early life is spent in a clean and orderly home. He worries about his clothes and hair, among other normal concerns. His parents, meanwhile, argue constantly in the background. Soon, his parents separate, and Burroughs is sent to live with his mother’s psychiatrist while she questions her sexuality. Burroughs goes to Dr. Finch, who lives in Northampton in a rundown Victorian house with his wife, Agnes. With them are a number of biological and adopted children who live in the house, as well as many of Finch’s own patients. There are essentially no rules within the household. Young people are having sex, smoking cigarettes and pot, and rebelling against authority figures. Finch believes that all of them are mature enough to be in charge of their own lives. Despite all of this, the issues that take place in Finch’s household seem to be dwarfed by Burroughs’ mother’s frequent psychotic episodes. The Finch house represents, and in many ways, is a complete parallel to what Burroughs was used to. It is dirty and infested with bugs. Dirty dishes are left unwashed; the Christmas tree hangs decorated all year. The stairs are so rickety that Burroughs believes he will fall through them if he climbs them. Finch eventually begins to believe that God is communicating with him through his bowel movements. Incredibly, Finch begins to develop a kind of divination to attempt to understand these messages.