Citizen Ruth (1996, R)

Citizen Ruth

Directed by Alexander Payne

Written by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor

Starring Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Mary Kay Place, Kurtwood Smith, Kelly Preston, M.C. Gainey, Alicia Witt, and Burt Reynolds

As reviewed by James Brundage

I just got off of a Laura Dern trip. First, I completed David Lynch's Wild at Heart. Then, I immediately popped in Blue Velvet, another Lynch/Dern collaboration. Afterwards, I took a brief respite from the serious in the form of the dark comedy Curdled. Then, this morning I checked my TV guide and saw that Citizen Ruth was on TMC so I decided to go back on my Laura Dern trip. So, dutifully taking my clicker, I changed to channel 18 and was greeted by the little dog hyping a feature presentation and then got down to watching my third Laura Dern movie in two days, Citizen Ruth.

Citizen Ruth, like Blue Velvet, is a dark satire. One of them takes on a relatively safe subject, small towns, in a relatively unsafe way. Citizen Ruth takes on the least safe subject that it can find, abortion, and does it in the most unsafe way possible.

Before you start steaming at your computer as your own personal opinions on the subject come to the surface, let me say this to placate you: Citizen Ruth does not take a side. Or, rather, it is equally fair to both. The fairness that Citizen Ruth displays, however, is in taking each side out back and beating it with a stick.

Citizen Ruth follows Ruth Stoops (Laura Dern), a huffer by inclination that has been charged with criminally endangering her fetus. Now, here starts the offensive part: the judge has made an offer to reduce the charges if she decides to get an abortion. While in jail awaiting trial, a group of rabid pro-lifers called the "baby savers" bail her out and decide to make sure that she has the baby (mainly motivated not even out of a concern for the baby but because they want to take the judge and hang him out to dry.)

These people are the stereotypes. They are Republicans, owning a mortgaged house and having two kids (one a rebellious slut underneath their nose). The husband works, the wife does not. The son makes model planes. The husband has a wandering eye. They sing praises to Christ until the cows come home.

Ruth, of course, is the complete antithesis of them. She wants to watch a TV which they don't have. She wants to party, which is, of course, a sin. And, in order to avoid going to jail, she wants to have an abortion. So they send her to an anti-abortion clinic where caring is supposed to be the doctrine but it ends up being more like complete hatred.

When you're starting to really get the point about how hypocritical the anti-abortion people are being, you then get to see the pro-choicers skewered like a shiskabob. Ruth ends up being kicked out of the pro-lifer's home and into the hands of a self-proclaimed "spy in the war", Diane. Diane, Democrat to the bone, has been playing as if she hates abortion so she could go undercover and get inside information to sabotage the baby savers plans. Can you say "psycho?"

Diane is a lesbian, pagan, new-age fanatic who wants nothing more than to make sure that Ruth gets the abortion. She calls in Harlan (M.C. Gainey), ex-special forces commando that makes absolutely sure the pro-lifers don't disturb their well-laid plans.
As the debate increases much like a cold war, money is laid down on the table. The pro-lifers start by offering $15,000. The pro-choicers counterbid. Ruth, feeling like she has won the lottery, is ecstatic.

The movie ends up being laughable thanks to the excellent performance by Dern, who shines through as always and doesn't make the mistake of trying to make Ruth nice. Were Ruth a nice person, the story would lose its point, and no one would want that.

The film is bitterly ironic to the end, as shown in the fact that both sides, professing endlessly to care about Ruth, are too busy shouting each other down to notice that she's gone. Oh, well.

For anyone with or without a militant opinion, this movie should show you why you should not possess it. It is a movie with a political motive, a satiric means, and a wonderful end. I'd say enjoy, but it's not quite the right word.