Word: garp
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...WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP...
...world according to Novelist John Irving is a dangerous place, the individual's position in it much more fragile than he imagines it to be. For the characters in The World According to Garp, the problem is that ironies both bitter and brutal keep gusting up out of nowhere and knocking them down. Out of this basic and by no means original insight, Irving crafted a bestseller and something more. His hero, T.S. Garp, that wise and foolish, gentle and fierce writer-wrestler has become a sort of postmodernist Everyman, and his often deadly adventures on the bleak...
Robin Williams' Garp is strictly from Ork; he appears to be visiting his role rather than inhabiting it. Even John Lithgow, who plays Roberta Muldoon, the transsexualized onetime tight end, fails to give his usual gifted portrayal of an eccentric. Only Glenn Close, as Carp's mother, a feminist heroine, escapes from the bland rhythms of the film to cut a few strongly individualized capers...
...reason for Carp's appeal is easy to identify: This is the story of a fellow whose family comes first, despite distractions such as a mother who attracts fanatics and a best friend who has never quite made it as a woman. Garp's infectious, good-humored and loving approach to life is summarized when he compares his own modest literary success with his mother's: "The same nobodys are going to line up not to buy [my new book]. Now I've just read that my mother's novel is going to be translated into Apache...
...single accident which kills one, blinds another and castrates a third. In addition, there are a number of near car accidents and several mentions of death, fear of dying and "the arc of a life." In the real world, both tragedy and joy occur in smaller doses than in Garp's universe. The film, like Irving's novel, occasionally seems somewhat fantastical and distant as a result. But every time a romance or a killing becomes too outlandish. Garp beams, or bellows, or frets, and his fear once again reminds...