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Starring Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz. This is the movie that attempts to put the fun back into the pro-life vs. pro-choice argument, and the comedy back into a woman's decision to have an abortion. Abortion is one of those rare topics that simply does not allow anyone, filmmaker or other, much leeway in dealing with it lightly and humorously. Abortion, and the people and processes that surround it, is a very touchy issue in contemporary society and just does not lend itself well to charming Hollywood comedies. I don't care if you're Tim Burton, Harold Ramis, or David Zucker, you're not going to be able to make the movie work, and make it side-splittingly funny. Unfortunately, screenwriters Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor didn't realize it before they wrote the script for Citizen Ruth.. Ruth Stoopes, played with shocking abandoned by Laura Dern, is pregnant. This in itself wouldn't be a big deal, but seeing as how Stoopes is homeless, has apparently had something to do with every child born east of the Mississippi since the turn of the century, and is addicted to sniffing spray paint that's been discharged into a paper bag--the only addiction in existence that makes one wish to view the grace and glamour of a heroin junkie--a judge orders her to have an abortion, or risk being tried as a murderer, citing the fact that Stoopes constant inhaling of Rustoleum Black may have had a very negative impact on her yet to be born baby. A bible thumping couple hears about Stoopes plight, finds it gravely offensive that the government should order any woman to have an abortion, bails her out of jail, and the 'war' between both camps in the abortion battle begins. Now, from before I even began to screen Citizen Ruth, I knew that Payne, who also directed the film, would not be able to commit to one side or other of the abortion issue. To do so would effectively reduce this film's target audience by half. People from both sides of the battle would still show up at the theater where Citizen Ruth was playing, it's just that half of them would be walking back and forth in front of the marquee, chanting poorly rhymed, poorly written attempts at songs. To me that suggested that Payne and Taylor had backed themselves into a corner; Stoopes could die, or she could miscarry, those were the only two options that would satisfy the necessary "nobody wins" principal. Maybe it's because I'm not aggressively involved in the abortion issue that I didn't find anything funny in this film other than a conservative family's promiscuous daughter; or maybe it was because the material at hand was sub-par. I am leaning toward the latter. Citizen Ruth brings up many interesting questions, skirts all of the answers and responsibilities that made it seem intriguing in the first place, and fails to deliver many laughs while avoiding the topic it chose to address. This just isn't worth the time or money you'd spend on it.
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