MovieChat Forums > Running with Scissors (2006) Discussion > The biggest difference between the book ...

The biggest difference between the book and the movie

posted 16 years ago by catchiec
15 replies | jump to latest

I loved the book running with scissors and all of Augusten's other books as well
however the movie was very dissapointing. I mean come on guys in the book the story really takes of and most of the story takes place when Augusten was 12 -14 in the book. The actor who played Augusten looked almost like he was in his 20's. I would of enjoyed the movie a lot more if Augusten was he was through most of the book. The movie was a box office bomb and could of been don so much better. Augusten defintly should of been played by a young teenager like he was in the book and not some kid who looks like he's in college. In the book he was also described as small and skinny for his age and didn't shoot up until his later teen years. If he had been played by a 12 or 13 year old it would of made th movie a lot more intresting and accurate

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dillydoggy54 16 years ago

You know I actually thought it was a good adaptation of the book- I was actually thrilled that they had brought the story to justice....
HOWEVER, you have one major point here- no movie could EVER replace the ingenius wit of Augusten's actual words!! :)

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[–] marandy_48059 16 years ago

i literally became nauseous reading the book. i only got to the first visit to finch's house. thank god i got it from the library instead of barnes and noble.seriously, was this true story, or written to be as grotesque and shocking as possible?

this is why i can't stand to read fiction.

[–] abens_98 16 years ago

The problem is if they had indeed cast a younger actor it would have thrown the film into such a dark realm. The events as described in the book, and as portrayed in the movie, would have made it impossible for the audience to watch happening to a young child. Any humanity in the Finch characters would be completely gone and they would have ended up looking like absolute, 100% monsters.

It's amazing what you can accept happening to a character on the page, but as soon as you see it happening to a real person, even an actor, the events can take on such a different tone.

[–] darth_vader_licked_me 15 years ago

I found it a shame that they didn't include more on Dr Finch in the film. In the novel it is revealed that he wasn't a real psychologist, and he raped Augusten's mother. Although it's sinister, I think it would have added to the plot of the movie. I also would have liked to see the futures of the characters included at the end of the film as they were in the text.

[–] KiroBiro 15 years ago

If you mean the epilogue, that is featured in the movie. It doesn't have as many characters, but the ones it does have are nearly word for word.

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[–] Savannah416 14 years ago

Actually this is not true. Dr. Finch was a real psychiatrist, he just got his medical license taken away--but that occurred after the events in the book. The alleged rape was never proven in the book, it just lay unanswered.

[–] jachandler333 12 years ago

It wasn't a novel. It is a memoir. And he was a psychiatrist. He just had his license taken away because of his behavior.

[–] kok_warlock 15 years ago

@abens_98

I agree, I think the actor who played Burroughs was very good, and he definitely looked like a 15yo, hardly someone in his 20's, and to cast someone younger would make it very difficult to see anyone of the Finch's family as anything but a monster, specially Bookman, instead of the complex characters they are.

[–] sundownagain 15 years ago

The film's cast was actually really good (although I could have gone for a younger Augusten but it is mighty hard to have a child actor portraying this type of character that goes through these types of situations - they usually have the younger children react without knowing the actual storyline but with this it would be quite hard).

It was the writing that faltered. It had none of the sardonic nature of the book. None of the wit. None of the over the top nature. It was a bit boring. The book definitely was not. The screenplay was very disjointed and basically all over the place.

--
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[–] jacintamy 14 years ago

I thought the movie tried to give Agnes a bigger role in Augusten's life than the book did. It tried to insinuate that because he didn't have a relationship with his real mother, that he had a relationship with Agnes. I don't think that was true at all!

I also didn't like the way Neil left in the movie. It's quite different from the book. There's nothing about him trying to kill Finch in the book. It's basically Augusten that pushes him away.

Another big difference was they never included the 'running with scissors' scene! In the book 'running with scissors' is a phrase Natalie uses to describe her life, I think. The movie made no reference to the title..

[–] rsm48 14 years ago

I agree that Agnes has far too big a role in the movie, while Dr Finch is resuced to a minor character. However, the one character I wanted to see more of in the movie was Hope, In the book, it's through her striking up a friendship with Augusten that he first gets reallly drawn into the family, and she's very much the one he goes to when he's in trouble. I ahte how, in the movie, there was the scene when she pretended to have cooked the cat (which, in the book, everyone laughs at when it's revealed to be a joke) and then she never reallly speaks again for the rest of the movie.

Also, if they're going to include the scene with them removing the kitchen ceiling, at elast make more than one reasonably small hole in it!

I preferred the way the cahracters were presneted in the book, particularly Augusten and Natalie's friendship being based on their shared dream of stardom. I know films have a limited timeframe and so can't include every point from a book, but this was something that I felt was really missing from the movie.

Also, someone esle said they hated the way Bookman left in the movie. To be honest, I never quite "got" the way his realtionship with Augusten was portrayed in the movie. They're together, but it's never really emphasised - it's just another piece of Augusten's weird teenage life - and Augusten never shows any strong emotion towards him in any way - be it love or anger, both of which are key to his relationship with Bookman in the memoirs.
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[–] mathmaniac 14 years ago

I also thought Joseph Cross looked a lot older than a middle schooler in the movie. When he said he was in middle school, I was shocked that an older guy was having back-door sex with a kid and it wasn't called out and out pedophilia. Guess that wasn't important, huh? Ya think the older guy considered it 'getting lucky' and 'having a relationship'? With a kid who wasn't even old enough to drive? Disgusting.

[–] AltaireIII 14 years ago

"I also thought Joseph Cross looked a lot older than a middle schooler in the movie. "

Someone middle school age or close to it could not make the film the way it was made for distribution. The Child Pornography laws would have probably killed any simulated sex scenes between a child and an adult. The Producer had to hire an adult actor to play Augusten.

"I was shocked that an older guy was having back-door sex with a kid and it wasn't called out and out pedophilia. "

I am gay and in middle school and high school I was young, dumb and full of ....

A younger gay male like Augusten usually doesn't know better. Yeah people his age are horny and they want sex. But they lack the capacity to truly understand what they are getting into. Even when a teenager knows better that still makes it wrong.

As for the adult who was banging him, that person knew better. That person went way over the line.

[–] jd_aterp 14 years ago

No one would want to see a 13-yr boy have the experiences Augusten has in this movie. It would have been an atom bomb...