CITIZEN RUTH
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"Huffer" Ruth Stoops has a big problem. The judge has sent her to substance abuse programs many times for sniffing everything from model glue to brake fluid. Now she has been caught again, and this time she is pregnant. The judge has had it with her. She has already had four kids taken from her, although she disputes the exact number taken because she was an unfit mother, so the judge wants to try her for felony criminal endangerment of the fetus in her womb.
CITIZEN RUTH has the audacity to skewer both sides of the most controversial issue in America today -- abortion. The judge takes Ruth aside and hints that, if she gets an abortion, he will not bring her to trial. The local anti-abortion group hears this and takes Ruth in. They figure that the judge's twisted logic of kill the fetus through an abortion or I will try you for abusing the fetus will turn the case into a cause celebre, which it does.
Laura Dern, acting for just union scale wages, gives a brilliant and unflinching performance in a totally unsympathetic role. If you've never seen a spray paint can sniffer in action -- I hadn't -- then you have no idea how gross it can be. The script by first-time screenwriters Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor never tries to gloss over her actions or give her some big redemptive scene. Throughout the show, bathrooms pose a special danger for Ruth since she finds good sniffing material in bathroom cleaning supplies. Her serious role is the fulcrum that supports the rest of the characters, who are drawn so broadly that they become delicious parodies.
So, you ask, can they form a compelling story out of this? The tug of war over the baby in Ruth's body becomes the basis of a comedy that works surprisingly well. First-time director Alexander Payne, one of the co-writers, has a deft sense of how to balance the serious with the comedy and balance the goring of both sides of the political debate. I was at a special screening of the film at which the film's editor Kevin Tent spoke. He said that although he believes the film does not favor either side, many people with strong views pro or con on abortion believe that it favors their own camp.
Like prize fighters in a ring, we have the two sides, each of which house Ruth at various times in the story. In one corner is the pro-life organization called the "Baby Savers." The Stoney family runs the local chapter of the organization. Kurtwood Smith is hilarious as the supercilious father and hardware store worker Norm Stoney. He has his flaws, including a roving eye toward Ruth. Mary Kay Place does the part of his middle-class wife Gail. Gail wants Ruth to know that they love her but that she must not sit on the chairs in the living room. It just isn't done.
The rest of the Stoney family includes a perfect eight year old named Matthew (Sebastian Anzaldo III) and a completely rebellious teenager named Cheryl (Alicia Witt). While the Stoney family wears their Christian values on their sleeves, Cheryl sneaks out to do drugs and smuggles boys in her room for sex. Her parents seem oblivious to the problems under their own roof as they try to repair the problems of the rest of the world.
Outside an abortion clinic, Gail alternates between eating honey glazed donuts and screaming "baby killer" at the arriving cars. Other anti-abortion activists are more articulate. "It's just a business to them," one Vietnam vet explains to Ruth. "Four or five hundred bucks a pop. It's just contract killing."
Just as soon as some in the audience gets riled up over the unfair portrayal of the pro-life faction, the pro-choice group appears in the other corner of the ring to get their taking down by the script. Swoosie Kurtz plays Diane, the leader of the local chapter, who starts the film as a spy deep in the Baby Savers group. Diane's unabashed lesbianism does not shock Ruth, but how little Diane ends up caring for Ruth does. Soon Ruth comes to realize that her body represents no more than a small battleground in a larger war. M. C. Gainey plays a Hells Angel type pro-choicer named Harlan who surrounds Diane's house with his buddies to guard Ruth like a prisoner.
Both sides call in their big battleships -- their respective national leaders. Amazingly, Burt Reynolds is fairly good as Blaine Gibbons, the Bible-toting national leader of the Baby Savers. (I have a rule, most recently validated by the turkey known as STRIPTEASE, to avoid all Burt Reynolds films as completely hopeless. Here Reynolds displays some long hidden talent.) Tippi Hedren (THE BIRDS) gives a cameo role as Jessica Weiss, the head of the national pro-choice group.
When Ruth's rock tape gets busted, she steals the only tape she can find -- an investment strategy tape by someone named Larry Jarvick. "...keep the chart handy as we figure the capitalization effect on your assets," advises Larry. Like someone listening to ancient Sanskrit, Ruth becomes increasingly fascinated by its incomprehensible mantra.
In the best scene in the show, Ruth goes wild inside Diane's house when the Baby Savers announce on television that they will pay her $15,000 to have the baby. Hosanna, her ship has finally come in. Not having ten dollars to her name, she feels like she has won the lottery. Her "friends" in the house cannot fathom her happiness so they explain to her why she can't have the money. To this Ruth moans, "Why can't I ever have what I want?" And later, "my body belongs to me!" Soon the inevitable bidding war will begin. Nevertheless, the show is resolved in a fresh and pleasantly surprising ending.
After the screening, editor Kevin Tent stayed and answered some questions. The first was about the film's distribution problems. CITIZEN RUTH opened last year to almost uniformly glowing reviews. Even so, Miramax never put it into general release. One member of the audience speculated that perhaps the film was considered a hot potato since it poked fun at so many groups.
Tent went on to talk about the editing of the picture. He said that he was surprised at the casting of Kurtwood Smith as the father since he usually plays a heartless bad guy. Smith ended up being so funny that they had to edit out a lot of his scenes to keep the movie from going overboard.
The other tidbit he gave was that originally there was an additional ending added after the film's current ending. All during the show, Ruth kept wanting to watch TV, but was never allowed to. Some of the scenes were left on the cutting room floor, but a few of them made it into the final print. In the additional ending that was cut, Ruth goes to a video store full of monitors all covering the controversy surrounding her. She switches them off and turns to a soap opera. As the film ends, she is in bliss.
Tent says the role of the editor and director is that of hypnotists. They must keep the audience in control and never lose them by letting scenes run on too long. Well, he and Payne certainly hypnotized and mesmerized our audience with their delightful and insightful black comedy.
CITIZEN RUTH runs 1:44. It is rated R for drug usage and some profanity. It would be fine for older teenagers. I recommend the film to you and give it ***.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: April 6, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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