Running with Scissors

Running with Scissors is a 2006 American comedy-drama about Augusten Burroughs, a boy growing up in the 1970s with an alcoholic father and a mother, Deirdre, who is unstable and obsessed with becoming a famous poet despite never having published. When his parents' marriage breaks down, Deirdre places her son in the care of her psychiatrist, the highly unconventional Dr. Finch, and Augusten spends his adolescent years living among Finch's eccentric household rather than with his own family.

The film was directed by Ryan Murphy, who also wrote the screenplay, and it was the first feature he directed, ahead of Eat Pray Love, The Normal Heart and The Prom. Joseph Cross plays Augusten, with Annette Bening as Deirdre, Brian Cox as Dr. Finch, Gwyneth Paltrow as Hope Finch, Joseph Fiennes as Neil Bookman and Evan Rachel Wood as Natalie Finch. Brad Pitt, Murphy and Brad Grey produced it for Plan B Entertainment and TriStar Pictures, with a credited cast of 36. It runs 122 minutes.

Made for a budget of 12 million dollars, the film took in about 7 million dollars worldwide, well short of its cost. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.1 from roughly 24,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.8 from a much smaller number of votes, indicating a modest and mixed response from viewers rather than broad acclaim.