Citizen Ruth (1996; directed by Alexander Payne)
One of the funniest movies I've seen in this decade, right up there with Bulworth and South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, and it's about abortion. It's the story of Ruth Stoops (Laura Dern), a chronic abuser of airplane glue, patio sealant and other chemical products, a woman who has already had several children (all of them taken away from her). She doesn't have a job, a home or any money, and when she's arrested (yet again) for hazardous vapor inhalation, she's examined by a doctor and discovers that she's pregnant (yet again).
The judge sentences her to a felony charge (her first) for endangerment of her fetus, but takes her aside and indicates that if she "takes care of the situation" (gets an abortion) he will reduce the charge.
Well, once the anti-abortion folks get wind of this (which takes about five minutes) they adopt Ruth as a cause celebre. But then the pro-choice forces get into the act, too, and Ruth begins to get more and more notoriety, while having less and less control over her own life. And things are even more complicated by the fact that long-term substance abuse hasn't done her brain any good.
I repeat, as I realize I need to at this point, that it is a comedy, and a very funny one (though I realize not to everyone's taste). Laura Dern is terrific as Ruth. Alternately bewildered and furious, she manages to seem taller than anyone else in the movie, like a rather bemused Big Bird (if Big Bird was abusing household chemicals).
The reviews I've read indicate that both sides are skewered pretty equally, but I don't think that is quite true. The BabySavers are perhaps funnier (nobody plays a determinedly perky suburban mom better than Mary Kay Place, and Burt Reynolds is so great as the preacher who leads the BabySavers that he got applause in the theater where I saw the picture before he'd even uttered a line), but the pro-abortion side gets their moments, too (wholesome suburban lesbians singing a hymn to the moon goddess on their front lawn). The difference is that while both sides are portrayed as opportunistic, the BabySavers (or at least the men) are shown to be sleazy and hypocritical as well.
Laura Dern is in almost every scene and she carries the picture. As one review put it, she is so fried that she basically has two expressions, "HELP!" and "Huh?" but occasionally she actually gets hold of an idea, like how she's being manipulated, and then she's wonderful, all arms and legs and fury. Her brain may be burned out by chemical solvents, but in her heart beats the same unconquerable spirit as Ralph Kramden, convinced that somewhere in this mess there will be the chance to make a buck. And, as it turns out, she's right.
The movie is a little stop-and-start because it's a situation comedy with a lot of situation to set up (some of it fairly hard to believe), but there are some absolutely great scenes. One of the best is the "clinic" where the BabySavers take Ruth. It's one of those places where the only real purpose is to talk you (or scare you) out of having an abortion, and Kenneth Mars is terrific as the doctor, all smiles, misinformation and lists of possible baby names. He shows Ruth a tiny model of a fetus ("and look, it already has fully formed hands and feet"), and she comes out wondering if all the times she slept in dumpsters she was sleeping on dead babies. So of course Gail (Mary Kay Place) takes her to a beauty parlor to cheer her up.
By Alexander Payne: Election
With Laura Dern: Dr. T and the Women
With Mary Kay Place: Pecker