The World According to Garp (1982)

this is the only movie of robin williams' that i can sit through. in every other movie (too many to count), robin drops character more than once and becomes mr. lovable comedian. not because the script calls for it, but because i think he gets uncomfortable with acting and finds it easier to go back to his roots. even "good will hunting," where he is his most restrained in years. it helps that George Roy Hill is an amazing director, and that the story is odd enough that robin doesn't have to invent something weird to keep him interesting. glenn close and john lithgow are amazing in their roles. and robin is touching and funny without going overboard. a nice, quirky American classic. and who doesn't love the Beatles "When I'm 64"?

Fmovies: Tediously long dreary cinematic waffle. I couldn't believe how bad this film was. I watched it merely because of the numerous people who gushed about it on this site. Was I watching the same film? The entire episode is one-dimensional. Nothing that happened in Garps' past affected his (or anyone else's) future and no-one was affected by their past. I think it was Socrates who said about plays that if a scene can be removed from a play without having any effect, then it shouldn't be there. Obviously, the director didn't know this rule and, so, stuffed his 'work' with one dire scene after another. Even the plane crashing into the house was unexpected, it wasn't a surprise, but it was unexpected!

It is worth mentioning that at the time of writing this (1st Dec 2002), even though many people say it is one of their favourite films, no one has bothered to add a memorable quote. The reason being that there simply aren't any.

Don't waste your time watching this, watch a plank warp instead.

Adapting a novel to the screen is fraught with difficulties, and "The World According to Garp" meets those difficulties brilliantly. It is not slavishly faithful to the book as far as details go, but it omits those elements which will not translate well and makes whatever changes are needed to make the story work on film. Robin Williams is a fine Garp, Glenn Close is absolutely perfect as Jenny Garp (her performance was one of the few times I've seen the exact character I'd pictured in my head when I read the book up on the screen), and John Lithgow is funny and touching as transsexual Roberta Muldoon.

The World According to Garp fmovies. This book is one of my favorites, so I had to see eventually how the movie stacked up. Not bad, but not perfect either. The movie takes so long to get going that the end seems rushed. If I hadn't read the book, I would have had a hard time really understanding the feud with the Ellen Jamesians or Pooh's hatred of Garp.

Still, this is one of Robin Williams's less annoying performances and a talented cast that at the time not many people had probably heard of. In the end, the movie is complex, at times funny and others sad, and maintains the spirit of the novel.

The book is better, IMO, but this is close enough. "The Cider House Rules" is an even better adaptation--if you like this, you'll love that.

The World According to Garp is an unconventional film, to say the least. Not so much in the sense of how it looks, or how it is acted. More than anything the film stands out because it is a human drama that doesn't take a stance or one particular point of view. T. S. Garp is simply a man trying to live his life amongst all manner of eccentric characters and unlikely situations. And like life, things happen. People grow old. There are moments of joy. There are moments of tragedy. And people die.

Robin Williams plays the title character known by most as simply "Garp". His mother, played with dignified enthusiasm by Glenn Close, has brought him up all by herself. She is a nurse and during WWII, she used the sperm of a dying tail gunner who she happened to be caring for in his final moments. To call this woman a feminist would be a magnificent understatement. Her sexuality is never made that clear to the viewer but is is inferred by some around her that she is in fact a lesbian. Her only relationship with a man that we learn of is the encounter that produced her son, and she spends much of the film condemning the lusty ways of men and boys. As the film goes on, she becomes a famous writer and feminist leader. Garp spends much of his life trying to be a successful writer himself and raising a family, but he never seems to escape his mother's shadow.

The plot simply follows the life of Garp and his family members. A great many things happen to these people over the span of many years. Careers are made, children are born, affairs are had, and the joys of life are often shattered by terrible tragedies. Williams is decent enough as Garp. He maybe acts a bit too zany in the light-hearted scenes, but he nails the more dramatic ones pretty well. That's the amazing thing about Robin Williams. The guy is an absolute nut most of the time he's in front of a camera, but when he bears down and plays something serious, it's stunning to see how great his range can be. He is an undervalued actor. Glenn Close steals this film though in terms of acting. She owns every scene she's in much like how her domineering character towers over that of her son's. The supporting cast is more than adequate with John Lithgow getting major props for his daring turn as a transsexual with a heart of gold. The film seems to take its share of jabs at radical feminism as it depicts a sect of women knows as the Ellen Jamsians. These women cut out their own tongues to protest the similar fate of a rape victim. And boy do these ladies HATE men. An act of violence in one of the final scenes shows how fanatical they can be. (as if cutting out their tongues wasn't bad enough!) Each person who views this film will probably see something different in it, and those are my favorite kinds of films. There are moments of definite humor, surprise, hope, and tragedy. You will not be bored. The film is based on a popular novel by John Irving and is worth 9 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

I saw this movie again on cable the other night after many years, and forgotten how enjoyable it is. This remains one of Robins Williams' best performances, but the show is stolen by Glen Close's debut performance as his mother, a neurotic feminist nurse who overshadows his writing career with her own. John Lithgow is in his most unusual role (including Buckaroo Banzai) as a transexual friend of Close's. If you are a fan hers and haven't seen this, run out and rent a copy; it's the best investment at BB you'll make in a long time.