The World According to Garp

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Cast & Crew

Robin Williams
Garp

Glenn Close
Jenny Fields

Mary Beth Hurt
Helen Holm

John Lithgow
Roberta Muldoon

Hume Cronyn
Mr. Fields

Jessica Tandy
Mrs. Fields

Swoosie Kurtz
The Hooker

James McCall
Young Garp

Peter Michael Goetz
John Wolfe

George Ede
Dean Bodger

George Roy Hill
Director

George Roy Hill
Producer

Robert Crawford Jr.
Producer

Patrick Kelley
Executive Producer

Steve Tesich
Screenwriter

Miroslav Ondrícek
Cinematographer

Stephen A. Rotter
Film Editor

Marion Dougherty
Casting

Henry Bumstead
Production Design

Woods Mackintosh
Art Director

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Critic Reviews for The World According to Garp

Audience Reviews for The World According to Garp

• Aug 31, 2015

  Improbably giving audiences John Irving's World-view without throwing the baby out with the bath water, this adaptation According-ly keeps the eccentric zaniness and melancholy of the source material while providing a stage for a some young soon-to-be-film-stars to shine. This slipshod digest of Irving's sprawling career-defining 1978 novel somehow manages an impossible feat: condensing themes of love, sex, violence, and death into a humorous concoction that goes down despite the bizarre texture. Like so many great works of American literature, Garp isn't an ideal choice for motion picture material simply because the scope of the tome goes far beyond the reach of a screen. Consider the fact that Garp gets conceived when his mother rapes a dying airman or the girl who has her tongue cut out by her rapists or countless Irving-isms that get worked into the fray (wrestling, bears, gender roles). Taken on their own, any one of these themes may seem off-putting but, taken together, the whole she-bang might seem like a lesson in lunacy without Irving's winning prose to frame it all. Someway somehow, the sorrow and sanguine make for a somewhat enjoyable - but highly oft-kilter - filmgoing experience. For the first time on Blu-Ray: In this R-rated dramedy based on the John Irving novel, T.S. Garp (Williams) tries to establish himself as a "serious" writer while living a life of adventure in the shadow of his domineering mother Jenny (Glenn Close), who writes a feminist manifesto at an opportune time and finds herself as a magnet for all manner of distressed women. Trying to break away from the sitcom shtick of Mork & Mindy, Robin Williams succeeds wonderfully as the title character, giving gravitas to an odd bird and foreshadowing the more serious career to come (The Fisher King, Good Will Hunting). Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and The Sting director George Roy Hill, meanwhile, makes the madness serviceable as entertainment. As faithful as possible, this filmic World isn't as approachable as Irving's Cider House Rules but it's never less than absolutely fascinating. Bottom line: Cider House Ruse
  Jeff B Super Reviewer
• Jan 12, 2013

  Scattershot cutaway look at John Irving's involving work ain't too bad, but the large source material refuses to be simply condensed into movie form and what suffers is the work's emotive impact. Mom sleeping with a dying guy, potent sure, but given short shrift in the film, and so most of the other climatic moments. Still, a different Williams film, Glenn Close's debut (and she's not too shabby, eh?), and overall interesting viewing.
  Kevin M. W Super Reviewer
• May 07, 2011

  Drama, comedy and romance. A wonderful film, full of surprises, showing delicate theme, how: bastard sons, homosexuality, feminism, adultery and infantile sexuality. All this recounted by the protagonist, T.S. Garp. A great black romantic comedy, that commotion your spectator.
  Lucas M Super Reviewer
• Aug 08, 2010

  A very strange and unabashed tale of the eccentric, John Irving's novel of the same name has been adapted into the story of T.S. Garp, a man whose life has never been normal. Raised by a nurse who raped a dying soldier, and works in a boys' dormitory, Garp finds his footing amongst writers, falls in love, and has an entire lifetime of adventures along the way. This film is bigger than life and contains strange incidents that make up Garp's life, including marital stress, death, assassination, heartbreak, and a gaggle of Ellen James' admirers. Supported in his life is his professor wife (Hurt), children, transsexual friend Roberta (Lithgow), mother, and other friends. The story is very strange, and by the end you will think so too, and yet it's also exquisite in its weirdness, its ability to shift and change as it adapts to new characters, new challenges, and new ways of thinking. It's simply a beautiful film that feels like a novel in poetic repose.
  Spencer S Super Reviewer

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