Citizen Ruth -- Pass the Political Football Please by Bruce Cantwell Ruth Stoops (Laura Dern) is a mess. She drinks. She huffs glue. She makes babies. She gets arrested. The babies get taken away. Oh, and she looks like death warmed over twice and left at the back of your fridge! Once again huffed and pregnant, she appears before Judge Richter (David Graf) who sentences her for reckless endangerment of a fetus. Off the cuff, the judge advises Ruth that he'll reduce charges if she...you know...takes care of the problem. Red alert. Christian soldier Gail Stoney (Mary Kay Place) and her born again husband Norm (Kurtwood Smith) pounce upon this poor misguided soul on behalf of the "Baby Savers" organization. They pay her bail and bring her into their home. When a stoned Ruth, turns on the Stoney's tattle-tale son Matthew, (Sebastian Anzaldo III) the aggravated family relinquishes Ruth's care to fellow Baby Saver Diane Sieglar (Swoosie Kurtz) who, it turns out, is actually a spy for the enemy camp. As battle lines are drawn, the press has a field day. Word reaches Baby Savers' national headquarters and General of Christian Soldiers, Blaine Gibbons, (Burt Reynolds) joins the fray. Co-writer, director Alexander Payne has made the very courageous choice of not taking sides here simply for the sake of making a good movie. He could have sided with the pro-life minions, offending pro-choicers, or vice versa. Either choice would have made Citizen Ruth a controversial film. Instead, Payne sides with the individual. Neither the Pro Lifers nor the Pro Choicers give a damn about Ruth Stoops as a person. She's simply the political football getting handed off and kicked around.

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