Back to trending
The World According to Garp

The World According to Garp

Drama · Comedy · 1982

A struggling young writer finds his life and work dominated by his unfaithful wife and his radical feminist mother, whose best-selling manifesto turns her into a cultural icon.

Movie details

The World According to Garp

“Robin Williams is Garp. He's got a funny way of looking at life.”

1982 Drama · Comedy 2h 16m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.7 / 10

Community rating

A struggling young writer finds his life and work dominated by his unfaithful wife and his radical feminist mother, whose best-selling manifesto turns her into a cultural icon.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The World According to Garp?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Igby Goes Down

Igby Goes Down

Comedy · 2002

Igby Slocumb, a rebellious and sarcastic 17-year-old boy, is at war with the stifling world of old money privilege he was born into. With a schizophrenic father, a self-absorbed, distant mother, and a shark-like young Republican big brother, Igby figures there must be a better life out there -- and sets about finding it.

Mother

Mother

Comedy · 1996

A neurotic, twice-divorced sci-fi writer moves back in with his mother to solve his personal problems.

This Is Where I Leave You

This Is Where I Leave You

Drama · 2014

When their father passes away, four grown, world-weary siblings return to their childhood home and are requested -- with an admonition -- to stay there together for a week, along with their free-speaking mother and a collection of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. As the brothers and sisters re-examine their shared history and the status of each tattered relationship among those who know and love them best, they reconnect in hysterically funny and emotionally significant ways.

Wish I Was Here

Wish I Was Here

Drama · 2014

Aidan Bloom, a struggling actor, father and husband, is 35 years old and still trying to find a purpose for his life. He and his wife are barely getting by financially and Aidan passes his time by fantasizing about being the great futuristic Space-Knight he'd always dreamed he'd be as a little kid. When his ailing father can no longer afford to pay for private school for his two kids and the only available public school is on its last legs, Aidan reluctantly agrees to attempt to home-school them. Through teaching them about life his way, Aidan gradually discovers some of the parts of himself he couldn't find.

Ghostlight

Ghostlight

Comedy · 2024

When a construction worker unexpectedly joins a local theater's production of Romeo and Juliet alongside his estranged teenage daughter, the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life.

Almost Friends

Almost Friends

Drama · 2017

A man in his mid-20s, still living at home with his mother and stepfather, puts all his eggs in one basket: the girl who works at his local coffee shop. The problem is, she has a serious boyfriend. As they become closer, the line between friendship and intimacy is blurred, and the situation forces both to examine where they are in their lives.

Die My Love

Die My Love

Drama · 2025

After inheriting a remote Montana house, Jackson moves there from New York with his partner Grace, and the couple soon welcome a child. As Jackson becomes increasingly absent and rural isolation sets in, Grace struggles with loneliness, creative frustration, and unresolved emotional wounds. What begins as an attempt at renewal gradually turns into an intense psychological descent, placing strain on their relationship and exposing the fragile balance between love, identity, and motherhood.

Effie Gray

Effie Gray

Drama · 2014

A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray.

First Match

First Match

Drama · 2018

Hardened by years in foster care, a teenage girl from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood decides that wrestling boys is the only way back to her estranged father.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Drama · 2012

Dispatched from his basement room on an errand for his mother, slacker Jeff might discover his destiny (finally) when he spends the day with his brother as he tracks his possibly adulterous wife.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

George Roy Hill

Written by

Steve Tesich

Robin Williams

Robin Williams

T.S. Garp

Mary Beth Hurt

Mary Beth Hurt

Helen Holm

Glenn Close

Glenn Close

Jenny Fields

John Lithgow

John Lithgow

Roberta Muldoon

Hume Cronyn

Hume Cronyn

Mr. Fields

Jessica Tandy

Jessica Tandy

Mrs. Fields

Swoosie Kurtz

Swoosie Kurtz

The Hooker

Court is in session

Put The World According to Garp on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.