Baby Business (1996)

Baby Business: Directed by Alexander Payne. With Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Kurtwood Smith, Mary Kay Place. An irresponsible, drug-addicted, recently impregnated woman finds herself in the middle of an abortion debate when both parties attempt to sway her to their respective sides.

“I thought u0026quot;Citizen Ruthu0026quot; was fine, biting satire and a movie that had to be made at some point in Americau0026#39;s history. Like all good movies, it is not really about the subject at hand – in this case, the abortion issue – but about something deeper and more far reaching. u0026quot;Citizen Ruthu0026quot; is about people who get so devoted to a cause they think important to humanity that they forget to consider actual human beings.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOf course, the unavoidable problem with a movie such as this is that almost all of the characters are unsympathetic. Regardless of what opinion one has on the abortion issue, both factions behave badly and they do it supposedly on behalf of the most irresponsible, irredeemable, unlikable (but still watchable) glue sniffer around, Ruth. The effect can be a little wearing, especially at the end.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie alleviates this problem by including one wonderful character, Harlan, the cynical Gulf War vet. He unceremoniously plunks his prosthetic leg on the kitchen table. He eats shirtless standing over a sink. He sees Ruth as a person, albeit a diminished one, and is willing to give her what she really wants (money) in order to, as he says, level the playing field, even though he knows she will squander it in a matter of days and tells her so. While he is on the prochoice side, he sees the humor in the situation, as evidenced by his wonderful grin and does not seem to lose track of his own humanity. His dialogue is priceless. Where everybody else speaks in rhetoric he cuts to the chase. My favorite retort of his occurs when the sanctimonious Dale, a pro-lifer, spouts out some Biblical condemnation at him and he responds by giving the exact location in the Bible of the quote. Naturally the actor playing the part, M. C. Gainey, deserves much of the credit for creating this appealing character.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie has many other merits but Harlan is my own personal favorite”