This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

While "The World According to Garp" is a nice movie, it is not quite as memorable as I would have expected. I haven't read the Irving novel, so I don't know how true to the book the film version is.The story follows Garp from his birth up to adulthood and parenthood, and it follows all those in his life and family. There are too many events to go through, so it is better to say that you should watch the entire movie, because a synopsis hardly do the entire story justice.Despite being from 1982, then the movie still holds its own today and can be watched every now and then with some years passing.What makes "The World According to Garp" good is the cast ensemble and the very impressive performances they all deliver. In the lead role as Garp is Robin Williams, who handled a serious role quite well. Playing his mother Jenny was Glenn Close, and she really brought something solid to the movie. But most impressive was John Lithgow in the role of a post-op transsexual NFL player. Lithgow was amazing in this movie. Mary Beth Hurt playing Garp's wife Helen also did a good job with her character.The movie runs a bit over two hours, which was starting to get a bit strained at times. But there is always something new happening, so it doesn't get repetitive.

Adapted from John Irving's best seller, "The World According to Garp" is one of the strangest movie I've ever had to see, I guess I mean it as a compliment although I didn't put my expectations very high. The film starts with Jenny Fields, Glenn Close as the central character, she's the caring and loving mother of Garp, but it's only until we hear the context of his conception that we realize the child was promised to a very peculiar destiny.Should I describe how Garp was born? This is one of the film's many surprises that pop up between two or three 'normal' scenes. But the intriguing parts are indeed so intriguing that we tend to believe this Garp is exceptional, a sort of autistic child floating within his own reverie. The film starts with a memorable animated sequence featuring Garp with his unknown father, a jet-pilot during WWII who died before he was born. While both father and son are fighting in the air a monster-like death, the surrealistic sequence brings some poetry to the movie, illustrating the capacity of a child to conceal hidden wounds through imagination. This is one of the inspirational messages I could relate to : inspiration and imagination do exorcise inner demons, especially during childhood.Then, when the young Garp turns out to be a wannabe writer, I'm not surprised, but the fact that he is a normal kind of disappoints me. I didn't know what to expect either, with this misleading shot of Robin Williams smiling at the sky. Finally, I'm glad he was a rather nice and serious guy, I don't think I could have endured the typical Robin Williams for two hours. Maybe it's the title that misled me, referring to the world rather than "Garp", it's not even the world from his perspective, but simply the world that revolves around him. Garp is not a passive person although he has one characteristic that undermines his freedom of acts, the mother's influence. Glenn Close plays a strong-willed, independent nurse, with an ambiguous relationship with her son, angry when he lusts toward his future wife, played by Mary Beth Hurt, and eager to follow him to discover the world. She's supportive and caring but maybe a bit too much.And when Garp decides to become a writer, his turning point strangely coincides with his mother's. Since nothing special happened to him so far, he writes about his mother, what she totally disapproves stating that only she has the right to write about herself. Then Garp becomes a fictional writer, specializing on short stories, and Jenny writes a feminist manifesto based on her own experience and titled "Sexual Suspects". Inspired from her own experience and many encounters in the big city, Jenny became a political phenomenon, a cult idol, while Garp, less successful but more critically praised can only resign to the satisfaction of being a writer, and at least, being as successful as a family man. After all, who can complain about accomplishing a personal dream and being able to live through it? And it's at that point that no matter how disjointed and peculiar some scenes were, I was immersed in the story of Garp following the little world of so many memorable characters. Those who stick to mind are Roberta, an ex-football athlete who became a woman: John Lithgow is absolutely remarkable, beyond believability, what starts as a gag turns out to be a poignant and sweet performance, Roberta is immediately accepted by the family, by Garp, and Lithgow has such a way to play it, we never feel it unrealistic. There is also 'Poo', the sister of Garp's childhood love-life, a jealous mute girl characterized by big horn-rimmed glasses and an incapability to smile, to life and in general , the closest figure to an antagonist, her appearances suggest a misfortune to happen, but the film is so full of them that we're never really off-guard and always expect a disaster to happen.There is also a very interesting sub-story involving a group of feminist who called themselves, the Ellen Jamesians in homage to Ellen James, a young girl who was not only raped, but had her tongue cut-off by her rapists so she wouldn't give her names. To Garp's big shock, the feminist voluntarily cut their tongue, An act of desperate unison rather than self-mutilation, but the way Garp perceives it, these women are dangerous. Never judgmental, the film allows us to make up our own opinions: ,adultery is also a recurrent theme, and the victims are not innocent. The film is a chronicle of things happening, and connecting to each other, for the best and sometimes for the worse, and for a worse that can be devastating or hilarious. George Roy Hill's direction, either deliberately or not, use a lot of suspense without forcing.And oddly enough, it's because we feel bad omens and sad events that were grabbed to the story and enjoy the little moments of joy and tenderness. The movie teases our emotions but never forcing them, it also never patronizes us, but it's full of some insights. It kind of reminded me of "Forrest Gump" without the Pop-culture thing, a sort of picaresque journey within one's own world, indeed "The World according to Garp". Robin Williams delivers one of his best performances, in all nuance and sobriety, while it's Glenn Close and John Lithgow who steal the show.And still, I feel I have to watch it again … the film is one strange adventure into life that deserves probably more than one viewing, I'm not sure I will find more answers, but there are some characters' motives that are still mysterious to me, and "The World According to Garp" is definitely worthy for more recognition.

Garp and I go waaay back. We have a history, part of which I will omit here for some honor, but most I'll explain.Picture it: Summer of 1982, Arizona. I was 8 years old and my parents took me to see The World According to Garp with the rational that it's Robin Williams (he was Popeye for my sake) so it has to be funny, despite the dreaded R-Rating my parents were opposed to. Not only were they shocked at the nudity, sexual situations and language, they found the movie boring and not-so-funny.What was funny, was that when they showed a woman's breasts, they covered my eyes yet leaving them wide open for the guy's locker room that, pretty much, showed everything. Heh, little did they know.Probably not so strange, those were the main two scenes/memories I can recall from when I was eight and seeing this the first time. Obviously, the rest of the movie didn't leave too much of an impact, despite seeing myself in the role of Young Garp (James McCall) since we were relatively the same age. I guess I was either bored or concentrated too far on what I saw openly or through my parent's hand.Beyond the "Rated-R Content" had they known what a deep, long and melodramatic film this was, I'm sure I would've been sent off to see either The Secret of Nimh or Tron. Heck, I would've loved to see Raiders of the Lost Ark's reissue as I don't recall seeing that in the theatres. My guess, they would've vetoed The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.Anyhoo…fast forward. Present Day, also Arizona. I just watched it again, only for the second time, upon a friend's recommendation. My reaction?Well, the locker room scene wasn't what I remembered it as… Just kidding. Overall, I believe the movie's title is wrong. Sure, the movie's main character is, in fact, Garp (Robin Williams,) but I got the feeling: this is really Nurse Jenny's (Glenn Close) movie. And Close did a FANTASTIC job as the strict, but free-spirited, WOMAN-FIRST single mother, something simply unheard of in the 1940s and on through Garp, her only child's life.Sure, Jenny was a tad bit controlling and had wild ideas about how sex was bad, lust worse and men suck, but Close showed such incredible depth that I would loved to get to know her in real life. That is, if her men-hating groupies (today they would be militant-lesbians, and perhaps some of these were) would let me near her.The character Garp does feel throughout that he's taking a backseat to his mother, and after watching the movie, I'd have to agree. If only he'd saw the whole picture, or at least opened his eyes and stop trying to one-up her, there might have been an alternative ending.Basically, the movie follows baby Garp from birth (and in the air) through fatherhood in various stopping points of his life. His likes: wrestling and writing, his lusts: a childhood crush, a younger babysitter and a prostitute and his love: Helen. All throughout, his mother stays close as both his mother and friend.That's the basic, BASIC, premise of the story, but you will need to watch it for the more depth given, the sly jokes the toned down Williams utters, and the friendships made such as the wonderful Roberta Muldoon played by John Lithgow.(I generally hate this phrase, but…) I don't care who you are, you'll fall in love with Roberta, probably the only completely loyal and sane character in the entire movie. And yet will probably be judged the harshest – especially in 1982 – for being a transvestite ex-football player.And speaking of which, that's one of the best qualities of this movie. Even though it was set from the 1940s to decades later, it still came out in 1982 and broached some touchy and tough subjects, both of which I thoroughly admire the filmmakers, writers, director, etc, for taking. This includes, but not inclusive of: woman's movements & rights, single mother parenting, transvestites – including acceptance and fights on both sides – SEE: Garp's final book. (I left out one in particular as that would be too much of a spoiler.)This is not all to say this was a perfect movie. Though it did pull some emotions out of me, and certainly made me laugh in spots – namely from Williams very low humor, it had enormous pacing problems injunction with being just too long and it was thoroughly over-dramatic in spots to the point where almost each and every scene as the movie progressed, I felt something REALLY bad was going to happen. That got annoying after awhile due to it taking away some of the pleasures of watching and enjoying what was on the screen. In addition to that, some of the most traumatic scenes were cutaways, freeze-frames or preceded a long jump into the future where we were never really sure exactly what just happened or who died (or not) until someone verbally mentioned it. It was as if the filmmakers were brave enough to release some hot topics, but pulled back in fear on others.I'm not sure how soon I'll be seeing this again – it's been nearly 30 years in between the first and second viewings, at any rate – because now I know how long it is, or feels. For, I don't have a problem with a 2 hour 16 minute movie; I just don't jump to the ones that feel twice that length.If you have not yet experienced Jenny's World, er, Garp's, then I thoroughly encourage you to absorb the wonderful performances, lines, humor, sadness, growth and hope. Just know it's not a quick flick, but it's certainly one to be seen.

I thought that "The World According to Garp" is a pretty good biographical film, however, it was not really the film that I was expecting. The tag line for this movie is, "he's got a funny way of looking at life." I do not feel like that is an accurate portrayal of this film. I feel that Garp has a pretty typical way of looking at life. I was expecting some quirky guy who was very unusual. Garp is a pretty normal guy who goes about his life in a pretty normal way.Robin Williams and Glenn Close both do wonderful jobs playing characters at a number of different ages. I also really liked John Lithgow as the transgender best friend.The ending really caught me off guard. I think it served as a nice way to finish the film so that we get to see the entire course of Garp's life, from birth to death."The World According to Garp" is a nice watch, but not an essential one. It is better than average though and I would recommend.