Review of The World According to Garp (1982) by Compi24 — 13 Jun 2023

"The World According To Garp" is neither as whimsical, nor as zany as its title and veneer let on, with Robin Williams' talents left largely wasted and the film's thematic backbone rendered obscure.

This really does feel like a straight-up adaptation of the novel, a no-frills blow-by-blow of events as they occur in the text and that's it. With that, there's a discernible lack of focus throughout as the film leads us through the topics of sex, feminism and moral ambiguity without ever really giving us a position on any of those items.

I will say, for all the problematic characters within, it's nice to see the most likable one to be John Lithgow's "Roberta Muldoon." That aside — not much to write home about.