The World According to Garp **** (1982, Robin Williams, Mary Beth Hurt, Glenn Close, John Lithgow) – Classic Movie Review 7658

Director George Roy Hill’s 1982 comedy drama The World According to Garp brings John Irving’s novel to the screen with its clever quirkiness and humour intact thanks to writer Steve Tesich’s intelligent adaptation and director Hill’s sensitive handling of an offbeat subject. It was nominated for two Oscars.

Robin Williams plays T S Garp, a sweet-natured writer whose life is shaped by the actions of his strong-willed mother Jenny (Glenn Close, Oscar nominated in her début) and the bizarre events that dog his every step.

The World According to Garp offers high-calibre acting in difficult roles, with John Lithgow (another Oscar nominee) a standout as an ex-pro footballer who undergoes a sex change and become Roberta Muldoon.

Despite its faults, The World According to Garp is a tender, funny, sad and tolerant movie.

Also in the cast are Mary Beth Hurt as Helen Holm, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Swoosie Kurtz, Amanda Plummer, James McCall, Peter Michael Goetz, George Ede, Mark Soper, Nathan Babcock, Ian MacGregor, Warren Berlinger, Susan Browning, Jenny Wright, Jillian Ross and Laurie Robyn.

It is the first of Close’s six Oscar nominations. The others are for The Big Chill (1983), The Natural (1984), Fatal Attraction (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and Albert Nobbs (2011).  Close plays Williams’s mother though she is only four years older. 

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7658

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