CITIZEN RUTH
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Miramax) Starring: Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Mary Kay Place, Kurtwood Smith, Kelly Preston. Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. Producers: Cary Woods and Cathy Konrad. Director: Alexander Payne. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, drug use, sexual situations, adult themes) Running Time: 103 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
CITIZEN RUTH is not coming soon to a theater near you. If you live in one of the half-dozen or so cities where Miramax gave the film a trial run, you missed it months ago; if you don't live in one of those cities, you never even got the chance to miss it. No one markets unconventional or controversial films better than Miramax, but even they couldn't get more than a handful of people into theaters to see CITIZEN RUTH. This time, they were dealing with the Grand Poobah of unconventional, controversial subjects. You see, CITIZEN RUTH is about abortion. No, wait, it gets worse -- CITIZEN RUTH is a _comedy_ about abortion. It sets out to offend nearly everyone, and succeeds. It's got an unrepentant loser as its protagonist, and she's the most likeable character in the film. In short, CITIZEN RUTH has absolutely everything working against it except a blisteringly funny script, assured direction and a remarkably brave lead performance by Laura Dern.
Dern plays Ruth Stoops, a young woman with no home, no job and a penchant for sniffing anything that comes in a can or a tube. Ruth is already a four-time loser as a mother when she learns after her 17th arrest for inhalation of dangerous substances that she is pregnant. The judge (David Graf) threatens Ruth with a felony charge for endangerment of her fetus, but suggests that he might reconsider if she were to get an abortion. That suggestion outrages local right-to-life leaders Norm (Kurtwood Smith) and Gail Stoney (Mary Kay Place), who take Ruth into their home and try to turn her case into a media event. Of course the other side isn't about to sit still for such tactics, eventually snaring Ruth away from the Stoneys to make their own political statement. Stuck in the middle is Ruth herself, who seems to have more control over procuring her next high than over the fate of her pregnancy.
If you were inclined to keep a tally, you'd probably find that Alexander Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor don't split their mockery evenly down the middle. They take some savage shots at the Baby Savers' tactics, including a hilarious scene at a "clinic" where Ruth receives "counseling" about her "choice." Norm, meanwhile, is portrayed as an ineffectual horn-dog who ogles Ruth in a bathroom and uses his job as a hardware store clerk to proselytize. That doesn't mean the pro-choice advocates get off easy. They are portrayed as just as obsessed with "messages" and public relations, and just as star-struck by their national leader. It's also hard not to chuckle at the terribly earnest paean one lesbian couple sings to the "moon mother."
There is only one place where the film-makers' sympathies obviously lie, and that is with Ruth. You may have a hard time sharing that sympathy, however, because Laura Dern isn't interested in making you like Ruth. Ruth is a selfish manipulator, always ready to swear that she's going to turn her life around a moment before she grabs a full bottle of chianti and an empty bottle of toilet cleanser. It is a gutsy and brilliant performance, one on which the success of CITIZEN RUTH as a social satire depends. If Ruth Stoops is turned into one of the sanctified poor, the film collapses under the weight of its sincerity. Instead, she is made completely oblivious to anything but her own immediate needs. She is a walking worst-case scenario, which makes it easy for both sides to use her as an example. It also makes it impossible for either side to control her, making for some of the funniest film moments of the year.
Payne's most extraordinary accomplishment may be satirizing both sides of a serious issue while never understating the seriousness of the issue itself. In fact, CITIZEN RUTH is really about how this particular battle has taken on a life of its own apart from the people affected by it. There is a scene at a protest early in the film where a clinic employee chides protesters' behavior with a reminder that they "know the drill." It is a telling moment. At some point, Ruth Stoops' case becomes just another drill, another "war story" like the one a protester tells as he gathers with colleagues as though in a social club. Near the climax of the film Ruth tries to escape from both sides, and is shocked to discover that she can walk away virtually unnoticed; everyone is too busy shouting to pay attention to a single troubled woman. It's a shame that a subversively spectacular film like CITIZEN RUTH managed to walk away just as unnoticed.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 mother's days: 9
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