Review of The World According to Garp (1982) by Devon — 11 Sep 2008

Movies from the 80s often lack the gravitas of new movies for the modern filmgoer: murders and deaths don't have the impact on a cynical 21rst century audience that an 80s director might've wanted.

I'm not saying this makes a movie like "Garp" bad, but it does lessen the impact it might've had. Despite some ridiculous melodrama here and there, this is quite a wonderful little film.

Glenn Close is a nurse who one day decides to have a baby, so when the opportunity arose, she took it. The opportunity being a braindead/dying soldier who's only functioning body part was a perpetual hard-on.

In a move of unprecedented sentiment (unprecedented for her character, as you will see as the movie goes on) she names her baby after the soldier: T.S. Garp (i forget exactly what the T.S. stands for, altho Garp says at different times its for "terribly sexy" or "terribly sad").

Garp decides he wants to be a writer, and around that time, his mother decides she'd like to try writing a book too. Garp goes on to be critically praised, but his mother goes on to spark a feminist cult phenomenon.

How Garp relates to that is interesting, as is his family troubles (affairs, children, etc.). This movie is kind of a cult in itself, it's kind of difficult to describe it; you sort of have to see it for yourself.