Bonnie Weis

Running with Scissors -- Bizarre behavior goes with the territory when a teenage boy is 'adopted' by his mother's wacky therapist and must cope with an extended family of eccentrics.

Based on the personal memoirs of Augusten Burroughs, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is a wickedly funny, brave and moving tale of surviving a most unusual childhood. Augusten's (Joseph Cross) mother (Annette Bening) is a deluded aspiring post with bipolar disorder whose marriage to his dad (Alec Baldwin) is in ruins. Soon, she is seeing a very eccentric therapist named Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), while Augusten is left in the care of Finch's wackly family, including his tightly-wound daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow). Abandoned by his parents and adopted by the Finches, he finds a kindred spirit in youngest daughter Natalie (Even Rachel Wood) and motherly support from Finch's long suffering wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh). Constantly recording the events of his life in his journals as a way to cope, Augusten finds himself avoiding school, learning about love from an older man (Joseph Fiennes), and making big decisions at the tender age of fifteen.

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.

Augusten Burroughs is sent to live with his mother's therapist after she and her alcoholic husband split up. But, as it turns out, Augusten's seemingly dysfunctional family was a picture of sanity when compared with his new one.