Citizen Ruth

Rating:
Summary: If you are confused about abortion--
Review: -- this movie helps to sort out your feelings, because, while abortion is a very serious matter, the people in the public eye in both the pro-choice and anti-abortion sides are often, well, laughingstocks. This movie deals with that aspect... the way extremists are so bizzarre and ultimately unhelpful. 'Citizen Ruth' can show how abortion extremists often ignore the flesh-and-blood women they're dealing with and spend more time arguing concepts.

Rating:
Summary: DARING !!!
Review: Alexander Payne went out on a limb for this film, and succeeded brilliantly in showing the fanatical zealots on both sides of the abortion debate. Almost every character (none them a positive one)is a caricature and portrayed to perfection by the highly recognizable actors who play them. The movie offends everyone and that is its appeal!!!

Laura Dern is outstanding in her role as the dim and drugged Ruth Stoops, utterly oblivious to the issues and to those who want only to use her to achieve their own ends. Ruth could care less about a "cause" --all she wants is money and a way to get high.

This movie points out the absolute disrespect that zealots who blindly follow a "cause" have for individual rights and free choice. They see everything in black-or-white and have no room for others' thoughts and just feel the need to control others' lives. To Payne's credit, however, there is no good side or bad side in this movie, and no pat ending either.

There is a lot of truth covered over by humor in this movie, and many things said that could never have been voiced in a more conventional film. It shows, among other things, how the more bizarre extremists actually do damage to the causes they want to promote.

Thought-provoking.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, but unclear.
Review: Black comedy at its best. The 1996 film "Citizen Ruth" literally (and blatantly) pokes fun at the ongoing abortion debate, a subject which, in reality, isn't all that funny. Still, it draws enough laughs from its audiences to last them awhile.

Performances are all top-rate. Laura Dern is off the wall as the unbearable Ruth, and although one wants to physically harm her before the end of the film, she still keeps what it takes to keep the viewer interested throughout. Kurtwood Smith and Mary Kay Place turn in hilarity as the devout pro-lifers, as do Swoosie Kurtz and Kelly Preston on the other side of the fence. Watch for great cameos by Burt Reynolds and Hitchcock-veteran Tippi Hedren as, respectively, a creepily baby-loving televangelist and a staunchly serious women's rights activist.

The film does hilariously criticize both sides of the abortion debate, by portraying all the pro-lifers as big-haired, small-minded, "praise the lord"-shouting faux evangelists, as it portrays all the pro-choice characters as being homosexual, moon-worshipping (literally), mediagenic feminazis.

However, the film DOES has a slant, which is possibly its only flaw. The only character that doesn't reach to extremes and wants what really is best for Ruth is the pro-choice activists' bodyguard Harlan (played by the convincing M. C. Gainey), who, in all honesty, just believes in "human rights and personal freedom." Also, in the end, Ruth does essentially make her own choice, even if it is a bit skewed. Furthermore, the pro-life side is slammed much harder and more frequently than the pro-choice side. Director Alexander Payne should have made his statement more clear (that we as human beings should care for other human beings rather than just principles and issues), by picking a side of the fence to sit on rather than beating around the bush. However, the point is taken in the end, and it's entertaining along the way, on whichever side of the fence you happen to be.

Rating:
Summary: Very funny, but with some flaws
Review: Citizen Ruth is a very funny movie with an excellent cast. I would highly recommend it. It is a little slow moving at times and has a few scenes that are far from comedic, but overall it's great and I count it as one of my favorite offbeat comedies.

Rating:
Summary: A WOMAN'S RIGHTS VERSUS SOCIETAL ISSUES
Review: Creative, well-done, well-cast film that brings up a lot of questions American society does not like to face. Laura Dern is excellent and convincing in her role as Ruth Stoops, a confused and not very bright woman, who has an addiction to inhalants. You see her eyes positively light up when she sees a hardware store, full of spray paints and airplane model glue, etc. She is homeless, and the children she already has have been taken away from her. When the police find her passed out after "huffing" they take her to the hospital and then arrest her, again. Everyone knows her because this is not the first time. They also know this will probably not be the last time. Ruth discovers she is pregnant while at the hospital, and here is where the story turns. What starts as a story about Ruth and her problems becomes more a story about politics, morality and how society deals with a woman's rights to choose (or not to choose). The judge in her case tells Ruth to do everyone a favour and get rid of the baby, even granting her permission to visit a doctor to obtain an abortion. He indicates he may give her a lighter sentence if she aborts because she will ultimately be doing society a favour by getting rid of an unwanted child. Ruth is perpetually confused. Ruth is bailed out of jail by well-meaning Christian anti-abortion activists who put her up in their home (well played by Mary Kay Place and the man who plays the father on tv's That 70s Show as well as the father of Neil in the 1989 movie Dead Poet's Society). They do everything in their power to convince Ruth to keep the child, but Ruth is more interested in getting high (still). After she basically assaults the Christian family's son, another of the anti-abortion protesters, played by Swoosie Kurtz, offers to take Ruth in.
Once she gets Ruth home she confesses that she is really a pro-choice activist posing as a pro-life activist. This throws Ruth for a loop. Ruth has already been pulled in several directions, and she can barely handle the everyday onslaught of reality as it is.
Soon the Christian family discovers Kurtz's deception and organises a massive protest outside Kurtz's home. Matters only escalate from there. Both sides are fighting for Ruth's unborn child, but they are losing sight of the woman herself, offering to bribe her to have the child or not have the child. It becomes a media circus...
The story is well written, the actors are all fantastic, and the film brings to light some of the more human issues at the heart of the ongoing abortion debate.

Rating:
Summary: A delicate balance of dark humor and social satire
Review: Finally, the DVD! And right after I find a used VHS copy!
Although silly (well, preposterous, really) and full of unlikeable, broadly painted characters, "Citizen Ruth" does cause the viewer to examine their stance on the abortion issue, no matter which side you currently take. "Provocative" is the single most used adjective in reviews for this movie, but few others are as descriptive. Well, maybe "controversial".
Ruth Stoops is an irresponsible, clueless, paint-huffing tramp who, while in police custody, learns she's pregnant again (she's had children taken away from her by the state already). Hardly in the position to think for herself, Ruth is used as a pawn for the causes of both the pro-lifers and pro-choicers. The situations escalate to bizarre proportions, but what the script does is take the opportunity to skewer all viewpoints. The film is labeled as a comedy (a damn black one), which is hard to see on first viewing. Once you warm up to it, it gets funnier.

Laura Dern gives one of her all-time best performances here as Ruth. Dern's career is wildly uneven, for every "Citizen Ruth" or "Ramblin' Rose" there's a "Jurassic Park" or "Perfect World" (though the latter two were examples of miscasting or bad story or direction). Her portrayal as Ruth accomplishes the near-impossible: you recoil in your disgust of her irreparable irresponsibility, yet sympathize with her situation and almost want to cheer her on near the end. This was a bold role choice for Dern and hats off to her!
The rest of the cast (too numerous to mention here) is terrific and gives credence to the madness swirling about Ruth. Without this ensemble, the touchy script for "Citizen Ruth" would fall flat on its face.
So, if you're up for an ideological challenge, see this film. Even if you don't like it, it'll give you plenty to talk about later.

Rating:
Summary: A delicate balance of dark humor and social satire
Review: Finally, the DVD! And right after I find a used VHS copy!
Although silly (well, preposterous, really) and full of unlikeable, broadly painted characters, "Citizen Ruth" does cause the viewer to examine their stance on the abortion issue, no matter which side you currently take. "Provocative" is the single most used adjective in reviews for this movie, but few others are as descriptive. Well, maybe "controversial".
Ruth Stoops is an irresponsible, clueless, paint-huffing tramp who, while in police custody, learns she's pregnant again (she's had children taken away from her by the state already). Hardly in the position to think for herself, Ruth is used as a pawn for the causes of both the pro-lifers and pro-choicers. The situations escalate to bizarre proportions, but what the script does is take the opportunity to skewer all viewpoints. The film is labeled as a comedy (a damn black one), which is hard to see on first viewing. Once you warm up to it, it gets funnier.

Laura Dern gives one of her all-time best performances here as Ruth. Dern's career is wildly uneven, for every "Citizen Ruth" or "Ramblin' Rose" there's a "Jurassic Park" or "Perfect World" (though the latter two were examples of miscasting or bad story or direction). Her portrayal as Ruth accomplishes the near-impossible: you recoil in your disgust of her irreparable irresponsibility, yet sympathize with her situation and almost want to cheer her on near the end. This was a bold role choice for Dern and hats off to her!
The rest of the cast (too numerous to mention here) is terrific and gives credence to the madness swirling about Ruth. Without this ensemble, the touchy script for "Citizen Ruth" would fall flat on its face.
So, if you're up for an ideological challenge, see this film. Even if you don't like it, it'll give you plenty to talk about later.

Rating:
Summary: Ruth Stoops to Conquer
Review: Having seen ELECTION previously and now, finally, catching up with CITIZEN RUTH, I can't help getting excited about the work of filmmaker Alexander Payne. In both cases, the initial buzz on the films seemed positive, but in neither case, did I feel the need to rush right out to see them. An abortion comedy? A high school student council election used as a pretext to make a larger statement about ethics in contemporary American political lifez/ Frankly, the chances of either film being pulled off successfully did not seem so good.

But Payne and co-sreenwriter Jim Taylor succeeded beyond expectation both times out. These are films that take no prisoners. It's not surprising that in the case of RUTH, many viewers focus on the equal-opportunity skewering that both sides of the abortion debate receive. All true, but the characters are not quite the stereotypical cut-out figures that some have suggested. While Mary Kay Place as a fundamentalist pro-lifer may seem an obvious choice, and Swoosie Kurtz's performance as a radical pro-choicer may seem standard-issue at first, both the script and the individual performances are so full of deft touches and subtle embellishments, that their characters' self-contradictory humanity finally does begin to emerge.

Caught up in the abortion rights maelstrom is the hapless Ruth Stoops, a homeless drug addict and four-time pronounced unfit mother, who finds herself facing felony charges of 'fetal abuse' after a routine physical examination after a drug bust finds her pregnant once again. At least one review I found poking around the Net, suggested that the theme was getting a little "old" by the time of this film's release in 1996. The "fetal abuse" charge, however, is precisely the element that made the film au courant. The 'fetal rights' argument has been used increasingly in recent years to advance the pro-life cause.

Satire has its own special demands on actors, but turning in a multi-layered performance is not usually one of them. As suggested above, actors like Kurtz and Place are given some opportunity to do just that and you'll catch those moments if you don't blink. But in the title role Laura Dern is given that privelege throughout. Ruth is certainly slow-witted and morally immature, but Payne and Taylor wisely give her just enough self-awareness to make her interesting. And Dern does not play her too broadly. The satire takes on life around this authentic seeming character, almost despite her. CITIZEN RUTH is richer than your average cinematic satire.

Payne and Taylor are also the creative team behind ABOUT SCHMIDT, another film I missed in its theatrical run. Let's face it, it IS hard to keep up if you have a life. But now THAT one is definitely on my list of must-sees. A new film, SIDEWAYS, is currently in production. OK, next time out, I'll see that one first-run.

Rating:
Summary: Ruth Stoops to Conquer
Review: Having seen ELECTION previously and now, finally, catching up with CITIZEN RUTH, I can't help getting excited about the work of filmmaker Alexander Payne. In both cases, the initial buzz on the films seemed positive, but in neither case, did I feel the need to rush right out to see them. An abortion comedy? A high school student council election used as a pretext to make a larger statement about ethics in contemporary American political lifez/ Frankly, the chances of either film being pulled off successfully did not seem so good.

But Payne and co-sreenwriter Jim Taylor succeeded beyond expectation both times out. These are films that take no prisoners. It's not surprising that in the case of RUTH, many viewers focus on the equal-opportunity skewering that both sides of the abortion debate receive. All true, but the characters are not quite the stereotypical cut-out figures that some have suggested. While Mary Kay Place as a fundamentalist pro-lifer may seem an obvious choice, and Swoosie Kurtz's performance as a radical pro-choicer may seem standard-issue at first, both the script and the individual performances are so full of deft touches and subtle embellishments, that their characters' self-contradictory humanity finally does begin to emerge.

Caught up in the abortion rights maelstrom is the hapless Ruth Stoops, a homeless drug addict and four-time pronounced unfit mother, who finds herself facing felony charges of 'fetal abuse' after a routine physical examination after a drug bust finds her pregnant once again. At least one review I found poking around the Net, suggested that the theme was getting a little "old" by the time of this film's release in 1996. The "fetal abuse" charge, however, is precisely the element that made the film au courant. The 'fetal rights' argument has been used increasingly in recent years to advance the pro-life cause.

Satire has its own special demands on actors, but turning in a multi-layered performance is not usually one of them. As suggested above, actors like Kurtz and Place are given some opportunity to do just that and you'll catch those moments if you don't blink. But in the title role Laura Dern is given that privelege throughout. Ruth is certainly slow-witted and morally immature, but Payne and Taylor wisely give her just enough self-awareness to make her interesting. And Dern does not play her too broadly. The satire takes on life around this authentic seeming character, almost despite her. CITIZEN RUTH is richer than your average cinematic satire.

Payne and Taylor are also the creative team behind ABOUT SCHMIDT, another film I missed in its theatrical run. Let's face it, it IS hard to keep up if you have a life. But now THAT one is definitely on my list of must-sees. A new film, SIDEWAYS, is currently in production. OK, next time out, I'll see that one first-run.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, hilarious satire
Review: I believe Citizen Ruth, which satirizes both sides of the abortion debate, is one of the best films of the 90s. Laura Dern is perfect as the angry, drug-addicted and pregnant Ruth, who becomes a pawn in the political war between professional pro-life and pro-choice activists. Declared an unfit mother by a court, Ruth is encouraged to have an abortion. She is "rescued" by a swarmy, too-nice couple who, of course, turn out to be fanatical pro-lifers. They embark upon a full-fledged campaign to change Ruth's mind, which includes making her watch a film of a fetus being destroyed. As her case gains publicity, she is soon appropriated by the other side. The pro-choicers turn out to be equally fanatical and ideology-driven. Soon Ruth is being offered money by both sides, to either have or abort her baby. What makes the film work so well is the way Ruth's deadpan street attitude sharply contrasts with everyone around her. She is utterly oblivious to the issues and movements which with they are obsessed. This perfectly illustrates the sharp separation that necessarily exists between causes and real life. Ruth is an actual, if not wholly sympathetic person; to the activists around her, she is only a symbol to be used in their campaigns. Citizen Ruth brings this point home in a way that is entertaining and very funny. It is one of those movies with an extremely unlikely plot that is so smoothly executed that it seems believable as you watch it. While the events portrayed may not be realistic, the emotions that drive them are.