FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
The pro-satire movement
Just when you thought you'd seen everything - the wacky side of abortion!.Citizen Ruth
Starring Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Mary Kay Place and Kurtwood Smith
Directed by Alexander Payne
At the Uptown Friday, March 21 - March 27Go no further with comparisons to Citizen Kane, the similarities stop in the title. There is definitely no Rosebud here. Instead we have abortion, fanaticism and vapor inhalation.
So totally removed from Kane, Ruth is none other than a huffer addicted to the intoxicating smells of spray paint and the like, who learns she is pregnant for the fifth time after she has been arrested for the 15th time in the span of a year. After the judge offers her a little deal to take care of her problem, Ruth meets a group of pro-lifers who were arrested at the local abortion clinic. The group offers to take care of Ruth until she has the baby, even though that is not the plan Ruth had in mind. Thus the battle for the baby begins.
While the topic at hand sounds heavy, the film offers a satirical look at both sides of the abortion issue. Mocking one view as much as the other, rookie director and writer Alexander Payne's ironic commentary is successful in remaining neutral and making light of a subject that would not be easy to parody. He makes the situation so light, that you all-but-forget abortion is a highly heated topic that some people actually kill over. But while he does manage to successfully parody people's fanaticism, the promised laughs are not quite as forthcoming as they should be for a satirical film. Far from hilarious (as is the political satire Bob Roberts) and falling short of being funny, his efforts instead lay somewhere around amusing.
The cast must certainly be credited for this standard. Laura Dern is excellent as Ruth Stoops, as are Mary Kay Place and Kurtwood Smith as the hymn-singing, baby-saving couple who take Ruth into their home. Burt Reynolds, on his road to redemption, turns up near the end of the film as the charismatic head of the Baby Savers - and you don't even want to throw something at the screen while he's there. The majority of satirical films are worth seeing simply for a change from the plethora of slapstick or situation comedies that are spewed out by the dozens. Citizen Ruth is no exception. It's an intelligent film, with a few laughs here and there - you can't always ask for more than that.
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