pd (09/23/82)
The power of GARP was certainly in the sensitive, if macabre rendering of the characters. The main dramatis personae - Jenny Fields, Garp, his wife, Roberta Muldoon, even the children seemed to expand and reach out from the screen. Through all the unseemly twists and turns in the movie, the people retained their charm. They charmed not because of their goodness or beauty or intelligence: here lies the skill of John Irving - they charmed because they were strange. There is a little bit of Caliban in all of us, and this is a strange world we live in: and one of the aspects of being a functioning adult in these wierd times is to be a little myopic to the ghoulishness that flickers on and off all around us. Mr Irving gives us, in his world, brief visions of this other world. It's bittersweet in small doses, from the comfort of an auditorium seat; what would it be like if we had to swallow more than a modicum? May we are doing just that these days! There must be some reason why my friend Sally the Shrink bought herself a new Mercedes .... Prem Devanbu