The World According to Garp

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Adam K Underrated performances and movie Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/16/25 Full Review Mark H A masterpiece of drama, comedy, satire and social commentary that feels a bit like an epic about an incredible life. It’s mostly highly respected, especially for the acting, but it’s also not an easy watch, which might explain why it’s a bit underrated. Robin Williams had only done tv, a cameo in a 1977 comedy and then Popeye. Casting him this early (1982) in such a heavy drama took some imagination. Williams is brilliant, portraying a real, imperfect, vulnerable person surrounded by colorful characters who still feel real. Garp features some of the saddest moments in film, realistically tragic. By the end, it can feel a bit exhausting, but I view Garp as a story about how life actually feels. We have some success, some triumphs, some love, but also much pain, many mistakes and losses. Garp is a special film, painful, funny, and moving, complete with a heartbreaking ending. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/17/25 Full Review Christian S Well written, acted, directed. True work of art! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/19/24 Full Review Jeff M What a fantastic motion picture! What once may have been perceived as overly eccentric now seems wholly plausible and almost prophetic - a sign of the times, as Harry Styles would say. I would dare say that the four performances by the leads are perhaps the best of their careers - although this was a cinematic launching pad for them. Close and Lithgow received Oscar nominations, and I would have included Williams and Hurt in the love fest as well. The comedy seemed richer than the last time I watched it, the drama more heartbreaking and the whole enterprise almost devastating. Williams' later dramatic work often felt a bit maudlin, but he is quite generous with his performance here in that he basically plays the straight man and allows those around him to be the outrageous ones - very rare in his filmography. And Close is simply breathtaking here, one of the great film debuts of the last several decades. This is a marvelous, marvelous motion picture, and this revisit has not only cemented its place among the best of its year right behind SOPHIE'S CHOICE and TOOTSIE. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/21/24 Full Review Robert R Based on John Irving's novel of the same name, "The World According To Garp" is neither as whimsical, nor as zany as its title and veneer let on, with Robin Williams's talents left largely wasted and the film's thematic backbone rendered mostly to obscurity. At the end of the day, this really does feel like a straight-up adaptation of the novel, a no-frills blow-by-blow of events as they occur in the text and nothing more. With that, there's a discernible lack of focus to behold throughout, as the film leads the viewer through the topics of sex, progress, feminism and moral ambiguity without ever really giving us a position to consider regarding those realms of discussion. I will say, for all the problematic characters that populate this film, it's pretty progressive to see the most likable one to be John Lithgow's "Roberta Muldoon." Aside from that, though, I didn't think this one was that much to write home about. Can't say I regret the watch, but there's just not a lot here aside from the performances. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 06/14/23 Full Review Person W "I never needed a father" Garp shouts to his mother as she leaves. How I couldn't disagree more. A tragedy of a movie and the only people I feel sorry for are Garp's children and perhaps Garp himself in some twisted way. Honestly, it would be better that Garp not exist at all as a character. I've never read the book, but what an awful film. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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