The novel on which this film was based was the first John Irving book I ever read and I enjoyed it enormously. (It was also the last of his I ever managed to finish despite really trying.) The film-makers here obviously liked the novel as well, since they have attempted to include absolutely everything into their screenplay, with the result that the movie is far too long; it starts off brilliantly but then sags in the second half and only just about picks up by the end.
The casting however is most interesting. Playing Garp from about age 17 to age 30-plus is the 31-year old Robin Williams in his non-obnoxious mode before he started trying too hard, and he nearly looks young enough. Playing his mother in her feature film debut, we have Glenn Close who was all of four years older. Then we have John Lithgow as a trans-sexual ex-footballer. If only the director had curbed his I-must-include-it-all instincts, this movie would have been a real winner.
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