Hard to think of a thornier novel to bring to the big screen then John Irving’s masterful “The World According to Garp.”
It’s so full of life – and larger than life scenarios – that any movie adaptation was doomed to failure.
So why did the film version of “Garp” work so wonderfully?
The 1982 film tells the story of T.S. Garp, a man raised by a stubborn nurse named Jenny (Glenn Close) who impregnated herself courtesy of a dying soldier.
Already, “Garp” is testing our faith, but director George Roy Hill employs such a delicate touch such precious plot lines slip right by.
We see Garp’s eventful childhood, full of his mother’s strange obsessions and curious neighbors, but the film truly finds its footing once the adult Garp (Robin Williams) appears.
He’s a wannabe writer and wrestler who falls for Helen (Mary Beth Hurt), the brainy daughter of his wrestling coach. Their courtship is strained, but eventually they fall in love and have two beautiful children.
The drama in Garp’s life is only beginning.
“Garp’s” first half hour is obsessed with translating key events from the book onto the screen, so it plays out in choppy fashion. But Close is always there to ground the frenzied material. Her screen debut is a stunner, and the Oscar nomination it brought hardly a shock.
She’s so cool, so self-assured, that it gives the film some badly needed structure.
Williams is terrific, too. He even manages to look younger, and then later older, as the script demands without falling back on actorly tics. And has there ever been a more fully realized transexual character than Roberta (the great John Lithgow earning his own Oscar nom for the part)?
“The World According to Garp” can’t measure up to the source material. What film could? Instead, it captures the broken heart of Irving’s text better than any film adaptation had any right to do.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
can i actually see this movie? I’ve looked EVERYWHERE!
I bought a used DVD of “Garp” … not sure if it’s still available or not, according to your findings. Check out used shops near you … or maybe a local Blockbuster will have an old copy … if you still can’t get it, it’s likely ripe for a re-release sometime soon.