The World According to Garp (1982)

First decent viewing; previous viewing in 1983 was experienced without understanding much of the dialogue.

The life of Garp, an individual who was conceived with the help of an unconscious soldier, and raised by Garp's mother. He grows up to be a novelist, but is overshadowed by his mother, who is an instant success with her memoir. He marries and has children, while his mother founds a sort of refuge for abused individuals.

There is an expression in Portuguese for which I found no equivalent in English: "crônica de costumes", whose literal translation would be "customs chronicle". Maybe this film fits in that category. Some could argue against that, saying that this is a social chronicle, and no less. Well, whatever. To be extremely frank, I wondered while watching it what fun was to be found in the contemplation of these characters' lives. But, as usual, I reprimanded myself, pondering that it had an extremely well-structured and economic screenplay, that the impeccable mise-en-scène was especially visible in sequences like the one where Garp lets his manuscript's leaves get scattered about, and that the casting choices were a work of genius. The multi-incident narrative never quite conceals that the core of the film is the somewhat sad story of a fatherless man who strives to be the best father in the world.

Rating: 55