Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

essence-71588 There are 49 reviews and no one mentioned the ending credits? Maybe nobody waits for them to roll. The first 1/2 has typical end of the movie music. Then there is the loud sound of a cassette turning over. The cassette she was playing earlier about how to make money plays with lots of pseudo advanced theories about investing money from a small nest egg. Then the tape jams and breaks and the movie ends. Too funny. My Dad picked this movie. Reading the short description given of a comedy about both sides of the abortion debate I was expecting the worst. However it is a dark comedy that pulls off its subject quite well, making fun of everyone. That is rare for a movie made in the last 10 years. A movie such as this works best when the main characters don't come off too stereotypically. The movie only partly succeeds with this. This type of movie is so uncommon nowadays though that I give it a 9.

gavin6942 An irresponsible, drug-addicted, recently impregnated woman (Laura Dern) finds herself in the middle of an abortion debate when both parties attempt to sway her to their respective sides.Alexander Payne makes his directorial debut here. Notably, he would go on to be Oscar-nominated for "Nebraska", a film starring Bruce Dern (Laura's father). He would have other Oscar nominations for writing, but working with the elder Dern gave him that extra feather in his cap.While the film's overt subject matter is abortion, Payne has insisted that the film is more prominently about the human side of fanaticism. Elaborating on this, Payne said, "People become fanatics for highly personal reasons. I mean, it's more about them and their own psychosis than about that cause." You can completely see this as the thrust of the film, as there is never any clear argument for or against abortion, and both sides pushed to their extreme with Ruth in the middle not giving a hoot.Oh, and Burt Reynolds shows up.

Yasemin Akdeniz I have to applaud this movie for being so neutral on the issue and showing us the hypocrisy and the cheap tricks and the inner contradictions present on both sides of the issue.Being what I call "a sane pro-lifer in pursuit of a consistent body of bioethics", at first I was somewhat upset by the fact that the movie only portrayed the two prevailing opposite camps regarding the issue of abortion, with presumably atheist lesbians (who, of course, turn out to be goddess adoring pseudo-pagans) with their snobby and self-righteous rhetoric about freedom to choose all the while they try to control Ruth's body on the one hand, and the apparently prudish, sexually repressed, and oh, of course, hypocritical born-again Christians on the other. But then I figured, even though Ruth was the not so intelligent, politically incorrect, irresponsible, glue-huffing character who didn't seem to have any self-declared ethical concern for the issue, it was really through her naive outbursts that the movie seemed to point to a need for a more honest and human approach. What I loved the most, however, was the end scene where Ruth escaped the abortion clinic with all the money in the bag and no one even noticed. It really summed up the whole point of the movie for me - that no one really saw her - not just then, not ever at all. Everyone was so caught up in their own hysteria that it had never been about Ruth at all. You won't get bored with this movie. It's funny, it's honest, and the pace is consistent throughout.

milwhitt702 This movie seemed so realistic, it was almost like being involved in it. After watching it over 20 times I still see small real things, like when the Judge asked to see Ruth in his office, he pushed to door shut, and immediately, for his own protection, opened it a crack before telling her "If you want to see a doctor while in jail...you can go". He didn't want that to get out but it did. I can sympathize with the Judge, he wanted to save the state a million dollars over the next 18 years. Mr. Payne really had it together and didn't miss a beat. He was slick too, for at the end he made Ruth the "bad guy" and was able to keep the pro-choice and baby savers evenly balanced, not giving way to either. Norm worked in a hardware store, and like Harlan, was very realistic. Every person seemed so real...and I think some of the cops WERE real. I first saw this movie on TV by accident, nothing else on. The second time I taped it. This movie made me go and rent or buy every Laura Dern movie I could find. This is my favorite movie.