# Running with Scissors (film)
*Running with Scissors* is a 2006 American comedy-drama directed by Ryan Murphy, adapted from [Augusten Burroughs](https://www.edgepedia.org/augusten-burroughs)' bestselling 2002 memoir of the same name. It follows the teenage Augusten (Joseph Cross), whose mother Deirdre ([Annette Bening](https://www.edgepedia.org/annette-bening)) places him in the care of her unorthodox psychiatrist, Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), leaving him to grow up inside the doctor's eccentric household in 1970s Massachusetts.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/64010-RUNNING-WITH-SCISSORS) • [2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/running-with-scissors/umc.cmc.5uzr5qwil42un7is28bixh0hu)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Source | Based on *Running with Scissors: A Memoir* by Augusten Burroughs (New York, 2002)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/64010-RUNNING-WITH-SCISSORS) |
| Director and writer | Ryan Murphy, who wrote the screenplay and co-produced[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/64010-RUNNING-WITH-SCISSORS) |
| Principal cast | Annette Bening, Joseph Cross, Brian Cox, Gwyneth Paltrow, Evan Rachel Wood, Alec Baldwin, Joseph Fiennes, Jill Clayburgh[3](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/running-with-scissors/) |
| Release | October 20, 2006 (limited) and October 27, 2006 (wide) by Sony Pictures; video release February 6, 2007[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Running-With-Scissors) |
| Running time and rating | 116 minutes; rated R for strong language and elements of sexuality, violence, and substance abuse[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Running-With-Scissors) |
| Box office | $6,860,000 domestic and $8,706,701 worldwide against a $12,000,000 production budget[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Running-With-Scissors) |
| Reception | 32% on the Tomatometer (135 reviews); Metascore 52 from 32 critic reviews[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/running_with_scissors) • [3](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/running-with-scissors/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and source material
The film covers Augusten Burroughs' adolescence from 1972 to 1978, between the ages of 7 and 15, in a household dominated by his mother Deirdre, an aspiring poet with unstable moods, and his father Norman, an alcoholic teacher.[6](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/correndo-con-le-forbici-in-mano/) When the parents' marriage collapses, Deirdre entrusts Augusten to her therapist, Dr. Finch, and the boy moves into the doctor's tumbledown mansion with the Finch family: the weary wife Agnes ([Jill Clayburgh](https://www.edgepedia.org/jill-clayburgh)), the devoutly religious Hope ([Gwyneth Paltrow](https://www.edgepedia.org/gwyneth-paltrow)), the rebellious Natalie ([Evan Rachel Wood](https://www.edgepedia.org/evan-rachel-wood)), and the older adoptive son Neil (Joseph Fiennes), with whom Augusten begins a relationship the film presents as unhealthy.[2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/running-with-scissors/umc.cmc.5uzr5qwil42un7is28bixh0hu) • [6](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/correndo-con-le-forbici-in-mano/)
The film was written and directed by Ryan Murphy and based on Burroughs's memoir, and Burroughs appears as himself at the end of the film.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/64010-RUNNING-WITH-SCISSORS) In a 2006 interview he said that Murphy "never let me forget that he knew that Running With Scissors was my life story and not just a movie."
[7](https://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/6334f8475fe75d1811c62719) Reviewers noted that the memoir's veracity had come under public scrutiny around the film's release, in the same period as the [James Frey](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-frey) controversy over *A Million Little Pieces*.[8](https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2024240314/2006-11-02/ed-1/seq-31.pdf)
## Production
[TriStar Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/tristar-pictures) produced the film, with Sony Pictures Releasing distributing; the producers were Ryan Murphy, Dede Gardner, Brad Pitt, and [Brad Grey](https://www.edgepedia.org/brad-grey), and the score was composed by James S. Levine.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/64010-RUNNING-WITH-SCISSORS) Interiors of Dr. Finch's house were filmed at the Milbank and McFie House at 3340 Country Club Drive in Midtown Los Angeles.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439289) The American Film Institute catalog classifies the film as a black comedy; the Numbers lists it as a comedy drama with a 1970s period setting.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/64010-RUNNING-WITH-SCISSORS) • [4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Running-With-Scissors)
## Release and box office
[Sony Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures) opened the film in 8 theaters on October 20, 2006, grossing $226,108, then expanded it to 586 theaters on October 27.[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Running-With-Scissors) The wide release weekend brought $2,531,760, a 1,020 percent increase over the debut, but business fell 37 percent the following week and the film ended its run with $6,860,000 domestically and $8,706,701 worldwide, about 0.7 times its $12,000,000 production budget.[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Running-With-Scissors) Domestic sales accounted for 78.8 percent of the worldwide total, and the film averaged a 3.2-week run per theater.[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Running-With-Scissors) Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released it on DVD on February 6, 2007.[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Running-With-Scissors)
## Critical reception
The film received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and a warmer response from audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 32 percent Tomatometer from 135 reviews, with 43 fresh and 92 rotten, against a 56 percent Popcornmeter score from more than 100,000 user ratings.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/running_with_scissors) Metacritic recorded a Metascore of 52, labeled mixed or average, from 32 critic reviews, while its user score stood at 6.8 from 21 ratings.[3](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/running-with-scissors/)
Critics' consensus on Rotten Tomatoes held that despite a few great performances, the film lacks the sincerity and emotional edge of Burroughs' memoir.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/running_with_scissors) Bening's performance drew the strongest praise. A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote that her "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."[10](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439289/criticreviews/) Time Out called her work "outstanding" but argued it was rendered academic by the film's failure to generate emotional rapport, while praising Brian Cox as the "brittle charlatan of a therapist" and [Alec Baldwin](https://www.edgepedia.org/alec-baldwin)'s "heart-breaking" turn as the father.[11](https://www.timeout.com/movies/running-with-scissors-1) Variety's Justin Chang found the adaptation rudderless, unable to grip the memoir's deadpan tone or episodic structure.[10](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439289/criticreviews/) [Richard Roeper](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-roeper) objected that the film treats mental illness as a license for characters to behave like figures in a [Lewis Carroll](https://www.edgepedia.org/lewis-carroll) story set to predictable 1970s pop hits.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/running_with_scissors)
Bening received a Best Actress Satellite Award and a Golden Globe nomination for the role.[12](https://cdn-media.festival-cannes.com/film_film/0002/32/ee05522cb88e86bd086c3dfc24387e86946da8fd.pdf)
## Themes and content
The film depicts questionable psychiatric treatment, drug and alcohol use, family violence, and a sexual relationship between the teenage Augusten and the 35-year-old Neil, which Common Sense Media flagged in advising that the film is not for children.[13](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/running-with-scissors) A review in the *African Journal of Psychiatry* observed that amid the bizarreness viewers can forget the story is a real person's account, and that the film is an interpretation of Burroughs' adolescence rather than a literal record.[14](https://www.walshmedicalmedia.com/open-access/runningwith-scissors-jop-10-157.pdf) Critics repeatedly compared its tone to [Wes Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/wes-anderson)'s family films; one SIGNIS review called *[The Royal Tenenbaums](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-royal-tenenbaums)* something like a cousin to the film.[15](https://misacor.org.au/movie-reviews/415-signis-reviews-2007)
## References
1. [Running with Scissors, AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/64010-RUNNING-WITH-SCISSORS)
2. [Running With Scissors, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/running-with-scissors/umc.cmc.5uzr5qwil42un7is28bixh0hu)
3. [Running with Scissors Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/running-with-scissors/)
4. [Running With Scissors (2006) Box Office and Financial Information, The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Running-With-Scissors)
5. [Running With Scissors, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/running_with_scissors)
6. [Correndo con le forbici in mano, Commissione Nazionale Valutazione Film](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/correndo-con-le-forbici-in-mano/)
7. [Augusten Burroughs, Running With Scissors interview, Groucho Reviews](https://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/6334f8475fe75d1811c62719)
8. [Movies by Jason Blair, Oregon Daily Emerald (University of Oregon newspapers archive)](https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2024240314/2006-11-02/ed-1/seq-31.pdf)
9. [Running with Scissors (2006), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439289)
10. [Running with Scissors (2006) Metacritic reviews, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439289/criticreviews/)
11. [Running With Scissors review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/running-with-scissors-1)
12. [Plan B Entertainment notes, Festival de Cannes media library](https://cdn-media.festival-cannes.com/film_film/0002/32/ee05522cb88e86bd086c3dfc24387e86946da8fd.pdf)
13. [Running with Scissors Parents' Guide, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/running-with-scissors)
14. [Running with Scissors, movie review by Franco P. Visser, Afr J Psychiatry 2007;10:179](https://www.walshmedicalmedia.com/open-access/runningwith-scissors-jop-10-157.pdf)
15. [SIGNIS Film Reviews 2007](https://misacor.org.au/movie-reviews/415-signis-reviews-2007)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Documentary and biographical films › Individual biographical and docudrama films*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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