Review of The World According to Garp

For adventurous tastes: John Irving's book becomes big, intentionally absurd, thought-provoking, violent comedy-drama about a writer who survived a highly unconventional upbringing, his odyssey through life fraught with comic calamities and bleak tragedy. Calling this movie 'a mixed bag' is an understatement; it careens wide-eyed through a tempest of different emotions and tones, but the fundamental weakness is that we never get close to these people. Robin Williams gives a solid lead performance (one of his first critically-acclaimed 'grown up' roles that took many by surprise), and Glenn Close has an amazing presence as mother Jenny (it's a one-note role without much shading, though Close almost overcomes that). Still, the filmmakers observe these characters almost clinically, and so they remain aloof from us. John Lithgow's performance as a transsexual is probably the warmest, and Amanda Plummer has amazing intensity in just one small scene. The queasy tendency to lump together sexual matters and bloodshed is more disturbing than darkly comic, and the finale is fancifully pointless--as if the whole film were a shaggy-dog story. ** from ****