The World According to Garp (1982) on Netflix
Jenny Fields wants a baby and no husband, so she has T.S. Garp without one. He takes up wrestling and writing, and Helen Holm, the coach's daughter, is wary of him.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.1/1031,393 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes71%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jenny Fields, a nurse in World War II, decides she wants a child and no husband. She becomes pregnant by a badly wounded soldier who can say nothing but the word Garp, and she gives that name to her son. T.S. Garp grows up drawn to wrestling and to fiction, interests his mother does not share. Helen Holm, the wrestling coach's daughter, reads his stories and keeps her distance. Jenny, curious about lust, interviews a prostitute and then writes a book on male desire and its effect on women. Sexual Suspect becomes a sensation and turns her into a feminist icon, and the money builds a center at her home that takes in troubled and abused women. Garp's first novel appears from his mother's publisher, Helen is impressed, and they marry and have two sons, Duncan and Walt.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The World According to Garp (1982)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Irving declined George Roy Hill's offer to write the screenplay because the two did not see eye to eye about Roberta, the transgender former NFL player: Irving felt Hill, a World War II guy, could not see past the comedic part, although John Lithgow, cast as Roberta, could have played her as written.
- John Lithgow and Glenn Close, in her film debut, were nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 55th Academy Awards.
- Leonard Maltin gave the film a rare four-star review in his annual Movie Guide, one of only 408 films out of nearly 16,000 to be given the designation during the 45-year period the guide was published.
- Julia Serano calls Roberta Muldoon a quintessential example of the “pathetic transsexual” trope, and notes the same archetype in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, Normal and A Mighty Wind.
