The World According to Garp

The World According to Garp (1982) is available to watch online on iFILM — a bittersweet comedy-drama directed by George Roy Hill and based on John Irving's 1978 novel, with Irving himself appearing in a small role. Robin Williams plays T.S. Garp, the illegitimate son of a fiercely independent nurse-turned-feminist icon, navigating a life that refuses to follow any predictable shape.

His mother Jenny Fields — Glenn Close in one of her first major film roles — writes a memoir almost by accident and becomes a cultural lightning rod. Garp marries, writes, loves, loses, and absorbs one blow after another, all while the world around him accelerates into something chaotic and absurd. John Lithgow earned an Oscar nomination for his supporting performance.

Director Hill adapts Irving's sprawling, tone-shifting novel with surprising fidelity — the film swings between domestic comedy and genuine heartbreak without warning, which is exactly the point. Williams plays it unusually still here, and the restraint pays off. Stream The World According to Garp (1982) online on iFILM.