To Abort or Not to Abort? Citizen Ruth

The debate goes on…pro-life or pro-choice? Is there truly an answer to this nagging question that takes precedence in countless debates, political elections and church meetings? In this movie you will meet two groups of people, each absolutely certain they know the answer to this very question.

Ruth (Laura Dern), a lifelong drug addict who has already lost several children due to her incompetence and ongoing use of illegal drugs…and now she’s pregnant again. Ruth is taken in by a group of seemingly friendly feminists who fully support Ruth’s decision to have an abortion and plan to take care of her in their home until the procedure can be done…doing everything to care for her except keep alcohol away from her.

Ruth’s pro-life family, on the other hand, tries desperately to change Ruth’s mind and finally call in the church for help. After many tries to convince Ruth that the best thing is to have her baby and reform her ways so as to be a proper mother for it including offering her a large sum of money to “help care for the baby” to be paid out as soon as the child is born. When nothing manages to pry Ruth from the pro-choicers’ care they call in a red alert throughout the entire church network, organizing a huge pro-life rally right outside Ruth’s safe house door.

If you’re tired of the perpetual pro-life vs. pro-choice debate this is a great movie for you as it does very well in portraying both sides of the debate as rabid fanatics and, overall, gives the impression that such a choice should be left in the hands of individuals instead of being publicly debated and having all manner of laws written on either side. If you’re a staunch supporter of one side or the other you may very well find this film offensive as both sides are openly mocked in this all-or-nothing movie.

There was quite an impressive cast for this movie including Swoosie Kurtz, Kurtwood Smith, and Burt Reynolds. However, despite the experienced cast it seems like most of the parts could be played by just about anyone…if you can act like a single-minded fanatic you can be in this movie. The script leaves quite a bit to be desired and the pace does hang up a bit in the middle with a fairly weak ending, but it’s obvious that the movie was made with the sole purpose of driving a point home and it does do that…it’s just not particularly spectacular on the way there.

Overall this is an alright movie if, as stated before, you are not offended by both sides of this particular debate being portrayed less-than-favorably. For general entertainment value I’d rate this film pretty low on the scale as it is pretty simple, predictable and just doesn’t have a lot of meat in it…I feel this movie could have been reproduced in about a half hour without losing any of the events or effect of the full-length movie. Not bad if you don’t have anything else to do, but certainly not one to go out of your way for.