C4755 (USA, 1996)

Credits: director, ; writers, Alexander Payne, Jimi Taylor. Cast: Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Kelly Preston, Burt Retnolds, Kurtwood Smith, M.C. Gainey Summary: Comedy/satire set in contemporary Iowa. Ruth Stoops (Dern), a pregnant white-trash drifter, becomes the unwitting object of a wacky tug-of- war between pro-lifers and pro-choicers who are willing to go to ridiculous extremes trying to claim her as a national symbol for their cause. Ruth likes to get high sniffing fumes from glue, paint, you name it. She is pregnant for the fifth time and has been arrested for drug abuse for the fifteenth. A fed-up judge threatens to add a felony charge of endangering her fetus unless Ruth agrees to ‘take care of the problem.’ In jail, Ruth meets a group of ‘Baby Savers’ whose leader (Place) takes Ruth into her home in order to rescue the baby. When the pro-choicers learn of this, they connive to abduct Ruth to send a message about the right to choose. Ruth is too busy tending to her immediate needs (food, fumes and booze) to pay much attention to what is going on around her, until a financial payoff creeps into the equation. The source of the money offer is a pro-choice Vietnam vet (Gainey)

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