Ellen DeGeneres

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This is one of my favorite movies. I was looking forward to reading the book. What a letdown. Robin Williams' vulnerable Garp enchanted me and I thought the casting for the film was perfect. The book, for me, by comparison, was a profane, vulgar letdown. I didn't recognize that Garp and didn't want to know him.

Is it worth two hours of your time? Yes.

Aw... I'm very disappointed in Ellen now.

On the whole, this is a poor movie built upon a poor book.
I remember when I read it way back that it was obvious a man wrote it, it does not ring true to what real women do, to how they act and react. I'm sorry I wasted my time watching it, although John Lithgow's portrayal of Roberta is a real treasure.

This book was about a women's point-of-view as much as Rambo was.
Jenny had some interesting things to say, but the main character was Garp
and neither he nor Irving have the faintest idea of of women really behave.

I wrote this in another thread, but I'll repost it:

(Tons of spoilers here, if anyone hasn't seen it yet).

What I gleaned from Garp's being shot (and maybe a touch of memory) was that Pooh was dressed like Jenny in a nurses outfit and somehow blamed Garp for the death of his own mother.
So, she shot him because he dared to attend Jenny's funeral service?!
Ridiculous.

I don't think Garp's own adultery was obvious in the movie. His wife's, quite blatant indeed and cause for much MALE drama. But his seduction of teenage babysitters? Practically nil. It was vague and no recrimination against him other than a little self-guilt, but guilt engendered not of remorse but from Garp's own selfishness -- HE fools around then doesn't want anyone to break up his little home.
What logic!
In other words he wants his *cake* but doesn't mind eating it too. (Actually that's prolly a bad analogy... I doubt he did any 'eating', just a few quick minutes for his gratification only on the side of the road. ;)
Don't know about you grrls, but I've never had a rewarding time in a car.
Darn few in bed, doing it proper either!
Sad how few men know how to truly please women...

Ah well, seems most men's idea of foreplay is to have an erection :/
and that's not just from my experience -- read the stats on the frequency
--actually the correct word is rarity--
of women achieving orgasms during coitus.

Sorry for the digression :D
The blow job-in-the-car scene was contrived. If any woman just got caught by her husband
--and wanted to stay with him!--
there is no way she would go sit in her own driveway with her (ex)lover when she knows he'll be home soon; movie or not and on top of that, be talked into a sex act there! Any real (or sane) woman would not come out of the house, she's just tell him to get the *beep* out and if this little wimp persisted, call the cops on him; much less have 2 glasses of champagne while begging him to leave --futilely-- then acquiescing to give him a blow job just to get rid of him.
It was just a device so Irving could write about some spotty, spoiled boy getting his too-busy cock bitten off. *eyeroll*

OOOOHHHHH. How horrid! What a shock writer he is, Irving was the Howard Stern of his time!
Blah blah blah, yeah yeah yeah.
And it was a best-seller then, unbelievably.

Outrageously, that incident is treated as more shocking than a little girl being brutally raped and having her tongue cut out!
...but what's rape of a child and her tongue excised compared to A GUY'S COCK going WALKABOUT via untimely, unwise (and completely illogical) sexual extortion --extortion on the part of the kid himself, let's not forget--
and Garp's driving!
Truly bizarre.

That's a man's view, in the main.

Helen didn't even say 'MY HUSBAND FOUND OUT AND HE'LL BE HOME *SOON*' like any normal person would -- she said 'I told you if ANYONE found out it was over'.
Geez. Give me a break.

There was more outrage portrayed that Jenny 'raped' Garp the father (and remember what he said about it! -- "Good!") over Ellen James' rape! Pathetic.

And no-one, no woman, not even a feminist --certainly not anyone who loved Jenny-- would shoot her obviously beloved son because some strange man assassinated her.

There's more that just does not make sense, but I'm not going to write (more of) a tome on it; other than say that men should stick to writing about what they really know.
And there are darn few that can credibly write, realistically, about women.


As for the movie itself, beyond the horrid material; the pacing was poor, it was cliche' ridden, the character development was neglected, the plot was full of holes as I already mentioned and beyond Glenn Close and John Lithgow (who were magnificent, as always -- they are the ONLY reasons for watching it at all!) the acting was pretty much lackluster.