Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

monasuehome Completely disagree with the way the top reviewer has reviewed this film. This is a great film that is one of my all time favorites. Don't let that off the mark reviewer from 2005 dictate whether you see this film, it is great. I own it and it will always have a special film spot in my heart for it. Love this movie!!!

grantss Good, interesting, moving film about one man's life, which sums up life itself - growing up, experiencing new things, love, marriage, kids, temptations, troubles, loss, everything. Starring Robin Williams I expected it to be over-the-top funny but it turned out to be a very good drama, with some funny moments thrown in.Excellent story, solid direction, good performances. Robin Williams demonstrates his dramatic acting ability, and the supporting cast are great. John Lithgow is particularly impressive in an unusual, and what must have been demanding, role.Definitely worth watching - you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Dalbert Pringle Question #1 - Back in 1944 (the year in which this film's story begins) was it standard procedure for a nurse, like Jenny Fields, to mount a dying soldier (who just happened to be sporting an erection) and, thus, get herself pregnant? Was this act of low professional ethics an accepted policy in the nurse's handbook? Question #2 - Am I the only one who thinks it's really screwy that after a woman has done such a thing (as mentioned above) that she then go around boasting about it, even to her parents, as well as talking about it in the presence of the son who was conceived this way? Question #3 - And would you deem it deranged and hypocritical for this very same woman to be calling adolescent boys "sick" for looking at girlie magazines (?) - As well as disapproving of her own son's interest in women? Question #4 - Is it alright for this very same woman to write a book clearly encouraging other women to literally defecate on men as a means of gaining female empowerment and that way reduce men to the lowest position of being the absolute scum of the earth? Question #5 - Am I mistaken, or did this movie send me a clear message, telling me that no man is any good unless he becomes a transsexual (?) - As well as telling me that it's only women who've got the capacity to truly love their children? Question #6 - Was this distasteful, gender-biased, ass-backwards comedy really based on a novel written, not by a woman, but, by a man? You know, after watching this film with its decidedly gender-confused storyline, I honestly find myself unable to determine whether novelist, John Irving was, himself, a true man-hater at heart, or just a nasty, little woman-hater. I'd say that he was, very much, a lot of both.But regardless of how I interpret "Garp's" story, I think this film was a really demented tale that made "Feminism" appear to be absolutely despicable. It was very poorly conceived as far as a so-called big-budget "Comedy" goes.

James Hitchcock The relationship between the cinema and the novels of John Irving has not always been a happy one. I still am amazed at how a book as good as "A Prayer for Owen Meany" was turned into a film as bad as "Simon Birch". Irving himself wrote the script for "The Cider House Rules", but even he could not prevent Lasse Hallstrom from performing his normal trick of turning everything he touches into the purest treacle. Tony Richardson's "The Hotel New Hampshire" is rather better, but still not as good as it could have been given its stellar cast and literary source.One of the problems with adapting Irving for the screen may be that his plots are complex ones packed with bizarre happenings and eccentric characters, the sort of plots that need all his writer's skill to turn them into coherent novels. When these plots are translated to the screen they can often seem like little more than a catalogue of unrelated incidents. The makers of "Simon Birch" were clearly aware of this problem as they removed much of the content of the novel, but in so doing they ended up also removed most of its significance. Another problem is that Irving's novels are often set over lengthy periods of time, thus presenting difficulties with ageing the characters. Here Glenn Close plays Garp's mother, throughout the film, even though she is only four years older than Robin Williams, who plays Garp as an adult. Williams too, 31 at the time, was not very convincing in the scenes where he plays a young student.I have never read Irving's "The World According to Garp", so I do not approach this film in a spirit of "it can never be as good as the book". Nevertheless, it seems to me to exemplify the adage that one should never judge a book by its cover nor a film by the big names in its title sequence. I have enjoyed what I have read of Irving's writing, especially "Owen Meany". After seeing films like "Dead Poets Society", "Good Morning Vietnam" and Mrs Doubtfire", Robin Williams is one of my favourite actors. George Roy Hill directed another of my favourite films, "The Sting", and made some more very good ones such as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Great Waldo Pepper". I was therefore expecting to enjoy this film more than I actually did.The film chronicles the life of the writer T. S. Garp. (We never discover exactly what his initials stand for; even as a boy he is always referred to as "Garp"). It follows him though his childhood, his college days, his literary career and his marriage to his sweetheart Helen. An important influence on his life is his eccentric mother Jenny Fields who follows her son into the literary line, becoming a feminist heroine after publishing her autobiography. Despite her feminist leanings, Jenny is something of a puritan when it comes to sex; she inveighs against lust with all the passion of a fire-and-brimstone preacher. She herself has only ever had one sexual experience in her life. When she was an Army nurse she had intercourse with Garp's father, even though he was comatose at the time, thus making her one of the few female rapists in cinematic history.This was Williams' second film (after "Popeye"), and he is reasonably good as the main character, although this is not one of his really great films. I was not, however, greatly impressed with the rest of the cast. Someone obviously liked John Lithgow as Garp's transvestite friend Roberta (nee Robert) Muldoon, as he received a "Best Supporting Actor" nomination, but I found his performance frankly embarrassing. (This film must have caused some amusement in New Zealand. The Prime Minister of that country in 1982 was named Robert Muldoon).Glenn Close can be a very good actress, as she was in "Fatal Attraction", but she never really succeeded in bringing Jenny to life; indeed, I was never sure whether Jenny is supposed to be a sympathetic character or an unsympathetic one. Indeed, I was never sure what line the film was supposed to be taking on feminism. At times it seemed like a satire on the excesses of the feminist movement, symbolised here by the Ellen Jamesians, women who have cut out their tongues in protest against male violence against women. At other times, however, Jenny is presented as an inspirational figure who has brought hope to the women of America, although we never find out exactly what was in her book to make her such an icon.Another problem with the film is that it is not always clear what is going on. A car crash plays an important part in the plot, but it is not immediately obvious which characters have died and which have survived. (To judge by some of the posts on here, some viewers were left baffled even at the end of the film). Towards the end of the film two characters are assassinated, without it ever being made clear why. No doubt these things might be clearer to those who have read the book, but a film based on a novel ought to make sense in its own right, even to those who have not read the literary source There are some good scenes in "The World According to Garp", but overall it is the sort of film that leaves you with the feeling "What the hell was that all about?" 5/10