Rating: 
Summary: Good Reading to go with a good film
Review: I just have to say that there are so many wonderful customer reviews for this movie. It's like being back in English class! I think the caliber of reviews reflects on the caliber of the film, ie: very good quality.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best films of the Nineties...
Review: The Cider House Rules is a truly classic and beautiful film. The story-lines, acting, cinematography and scenery, the costumes, the wonderful performances by the children (most notably Erik Per Sullivan from TV's Malcom in the Middle), and the brilliant directing all make this film hearken back to the fantastic old-fashioned days of film-making. It is truly a feast for the eyes. The film brings to life an era of our history when the voices of women were still pale shadows of the thundering voices of Men and "the Law." But/for a few men sensitive to the plight of women, (and to that of the children which so depend upon them), women's voices weren't heard. This film focuses on two men who hear those voices, and who quietly listen while the voices are allowed to grow stronger. This is Tobey Maguire's breakthrough role. He plays Homer Wells with quiet dignity and curiosity, and it's wonderful. Charlize Theron shines as Maguire's love interest, and Caine is perfect as Wilbur Larch. The role seems made for him, (as Homer Wells does for Maguire). Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom does here what he did so brilliantly in Something to Talk About, ie: makes nature, the seasons, the snows of winter, the falling leaves of autumn, the sweet ripe sun of summer, all characters in themselves. Swedes are renowned nature-lovers, so this makes sense. Anyone doubting me should see Under the Sun (Under Solen), by Colin Nutley. A classicly-acted and directed film, this film is one which I think will be looked back on in future years as one of the best films of the nineties. There are several complex and moving storylines, dealing with such issues as racism, abortion, adultery, incest, alcoholism/addiction, the power (both for good and for bad) of the Law, and, perhaps most importantly, the redemptive power of unconditional love. The film does not boldly draw lines of right and wrong. In fact, much of the film's beauty and power lies in the shades of grey between. The film reflects on a moral world outside of the law, a law of humanity and compassion, of what is right despite what dusty judges in their chambers have decreed. Cider House beautifully lulls us along on a profound journey about human beings just trying to be good people, and the sacrifices which are sometimes made, and not always acknowledged, for them to succeed in doing so. The Oscar-winning leads are fantastic, but the whole cast really shines here. Singer Erykah Badu's debut performance is excellent, and shows us that she has a successful future in acting waiting should she choose to quit her day job. Delroy Lindo's portrayal of an incestuous father is heart-breaking. And Paul Rudd gives a solid performance in a supporting role. This is a film which, once seen, will always be remembered. It reminds me of Titanic or Dead Poet's Society in that it just hits so many of the notes that movies are supposed to. The music, the acting, the scenery, the storylines. A timeless adaptation of a classic, humanist story. Five stars.
Rating:
Summary: This is one that you will not soon forget!
Review: This film was the best in 1999, and possibly the best in several years. Wonderfully portrayed by all involved, the film takes you into their world and you are very reluctant to leave when it is over. Cider House Rules expresses the fact that life is made up of shades of gray, not black and white. And that one must live with one's own decisions and make the best choices based on not what others say, but what we feel is right in our hearts. Tobey Maguire is the ultimate Homer Wells. He brings such depth to every role he plays, but I believe this is my favorite so far. He is a good bet to keep your eye on in the future. Doctor Larch could only be Michael Caine. The part is him. No other. I could go on...but you must see for yourself. If you don't, you are truly cheating yourself of a very rich experience that will affect you for some time to come.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful.
Review: The directing is wonderful and so is the acting. And if you haven't seen Maguire in RIDE WITH THE DEVIL, you need to see this wonderful film also. Caine is wonderful and Theron is hotter than hell. A really beautiful woman. My only complaint and observation: this film should not have been called the Cider House Rules. This title is weakly portrayed in the film. A skimpy list of rules on a wall?
Rating:
Summary: Quite possibly the best of the 1990's
Review: From Lasse Hallstrom comes the wondrous, the beautiful, the amazing story about how far we must travel to find the place where we belong. "The Cider House Rules" is a touching, emotional journey about Homer Wells (played flawlessly by Tobey Maguire) who leaves the orphanage where he has spent his entire life to see the world. Homer learns the tribulations and lessons of life, love, and freedom in this powerful Academy Award winner. Charlize Theron, Michael Caine, Delroy Lindo, and Erykah Badu all lend surprisingly strong support in their three-dimensional roles. "The Cider House Rules" was snubbed of the Academy Award for Best Picture this past year, but will live in the hearts of moviegoers forever. An American classic if there ever was one.
Rating: 
Summary: a film of strengths and weaknesses
Review: When a film takes place in two entirely different settings - involving almost two entirely different sets of characters - it inevitably runs the risk that one of the two sides will generate more interest than the other and that the movie itself will appear to break into halves of unequal quality. The end result is that such a film may seem to be disjointed and lacking in the cohesive unity necessary for any work of genuine art. "The Cider House Rules" runs the risk and falls into the trap. The first section, set in a Maine orphanage in 1943, fascinates us not merely with the sheer novelty of the setting but with the central figure of the piece, the doctor and caregiver who becomes the focus of our attention. Brilliantly portrayed by Michael Caine, Dr. Larch is a man who provides love to a collection of children otherwise ignored and abandoned by an uncaring world. The most controversial aspect of the character involves the fact that Dr. Larch also provides abortions for women who want them at a time when the operation was still illegal and the only other alternative for many of these women was to suffer at the hands of inept practitioners of the operation. "The Cider House Rules" is certainly to be commended for tackling a subject that is virtually taboo in commercial moviemaking - albeit, it must be stated for those who do not adhere to abortion advocacy that the slant here is decidedly pro-choice despite the script's making a few gestures to the anti-abortion viewpoint early on in the film. The center of the film is occupied by a young man named Homer Wells, a twice-rejected orphan who grows up at the orphanage almost as Dr. Larch's medical protégée and whom Dr. Larch appears to be grooming to take over his practice from him in the future. The pseudo father-son relationships between Dr. Larch and Homer and between Homer and the boys who are in his charge are conveyed with genuine emotional power and heartwarming believability. As prospective parents visit the facility, we feel deeply the desperation these children have to be adopted and to find a place where they will fit in. Conversely, we empathize keenly with the sense of sadness and personal inadequacy that inevitably accompanies each of their many rejections. Even more fascinating is the social context in which the drama plays itself out. Because of his willingness to perform the abortions, Dr. Larch's position at the orphanage has come under attack from the board of trustees that runs the institution. Thus, we are all primed for a gripping showdown between these two opposing forces and wonder how Homer will fit into the proceedings. Unfortunately, the author John Irving pulls the rug out from under us as he decides to take his story off into an almost entirely different direction. Feeling that he is missing out on a whole vast world waiting for him beyond the confines of this remote, isolated community, Homer, rather understandably for a sheltered young man, decides to abruptly leave the orphanage and to start life anew as an apple picker when he meets a soldier whose beautiful wife has come to the doctor for an abortion and whose family is in the cider making business. Although Homer's sudden farewell results in a scene of great emotional power, as a whole torrent of conflicting emotions come flooding out of both Homer and the people he is leaving behind, the fact is that we sorely miss the orphanage once we are ripped away from it. Somehow, the scenes on the farm - and they constitute well more than half of the film's running time - never match in intensity and interest those that have come before. In fact, the least original and impressive aspect of the film is the predictable and conventional adulterous affair that Homer and the soldier's wife, Candy (Charlize Theron), indulge in when her fighter-bomber husband returns to the war. Has there ever in the movies been a case of a beautiful young wife who did not cheat on her husband the minute he went on a mission overseas? The theme of the story - as represented by the posted list of "cider house rules" that we are told by one of the characters are not too be followed because whoever wrote them didn't live in the cider house - seems to be that rules are made to be broken, although in some cases - such as incest - the violation goes so far over the edge that such an act will always result in disastrous consequences for the perpetrator. Throughout the film, the characters always seem to be abandoning the rules set out for them by society. Dr. Lance performs illegal operations, creates a phony resume and a set of counterfeit documents in an attempt to get the board to hire Homer as his assistant, and even deceives Homer into believing he suffers from a serious heart ailment to keep him out of the service. Homer himself seems to suffer little guilt as he pursues a love affair with the wife of the man who has kindly entrusted him with a job when he most needs it. More interesting than this theme, however, is the more subtle one of parents - whether real or ersatz - learning to let go of the child in whom one has invested all one's dreams and hopes for the future. The genuine heartbreak Dr. Lance suffers as Homer leaves to find a new place in the world becomes almost palpable as written on Caine's beautifully expressive, craggy face. Unfortunately, this aspect of the film is, understandably I suppose, played out almost entirely in scenes in which letters are exchanged back and forth between the two principals and in which their feelings are conveyed in the rather undramatic form of voice-over narration. In fact, after Homer leaves, Dr. Lance becomes virtually a minor character in the story and, with his withdrawal from the scene of action, much of the emotional energy of the earlier portions drains out of the film. Director Lasse Hallstrom deserves high praise for the fine performances he has drawn from a uniformly excellent cast. As Homer, Tobey Maguire brings a quiet, understated niceness to the pivotal role. Particularly noteworthy are the young boys who fill the early sections of the film with so much infectious life and emotion. They are cute without being adorable, touching without being cloying. Hallstrom has also captured the alternately lush, alternately bleak Maine landscape to striking effect.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: The idea of this movie captured me long before it first hit theatre. An orphanage where hopes never die, and a boy who needs to make it in the world before he learns his real calling in the place where he was born and raised. It almost has a mesmerizing quality to it. Combined with the amazing writing talent of John Irving and outstanding actors such as Toby McGuire and Michael Caine makes this movie memorable and strong! The movie, set in a time period where many children were orphaned by the various changes the era had to offer focuses on a small orphanage in St. Cloud's, Maine, where abortions are not uncommon, the children grow up, and learn the feeling of dissapointment, when a little girl with blond hair and blue eyes is chosen by a family before a little boy with a runny nose and charming smile, and so the competition continues with only small glimmers of hope for each child, and some, like Fuzzy Stone, a small boy with lung problems, never gets to have the family of his dreams. When the lead boy, Homer (McGuire) leaves to find a new future by the ocean and earning a living working at a small orchard with Migrant workers, he learns about life, the kind of love he never knew he had experienced, and where he truly belongs. This story, although it is pretty far off from the book, is a masterpiece all of it's own. Amazing acting, strong characters, and a healthy dose of reality from that period of life makes this movie memorable and a definite find. Check it out, and you won't be dissapointed!
Rating: 
Summary: Sweet but heavy
Review: The title of the movie has spelled out the theme, though it takes you some time to know what it means at the very beginning. Overall speaking, it is a very balanced movie that can attract your attention to the end. The theme was dealt with through the dialogues of different characters inside it - why should someone set down rules for things which they don't really involved in? The theme was brought up by the abortion controversy and the cider house rules. Nonetheless, there are some side lines which worth further thoughts. One of them is the "affair" between Toby and Charlize, who claimed that she was not good in being alone. Was there real love between them? Or is Toby just a means for her to satisfy her physical and emotional desires? That was not really tackled. Charlize returned to her original boy friend to take care of him, but is this out of love or duties? In fact, was the affair between her and Toby really necessary? I tend to take the orientation that, this part of the movie has in fact spoiled the plot of the movie instead of coloring it. This movie can still live without emotional love for it still has peer love, love between a teacher and a student, care among colleagues, friendship etc. Why bother adding this part to it? The other one was the incest relation of the cider house rule manager and her daughter. It did provide a dramatic effect to the whole story and of course it paved way for Toby to return to the orphanage to succeed Michael's role as the doctor and manager. However, at the same time, it made the atmosphere of the story very heavy, and sometimes too heavy for the audience. Michael's view on abortion is disputable, but worth some deeper thoughts. However I personally do not agree his doings of faking qualifications, despite it was for good. Also the management of life and death, the King Kong movie show, the nurses at the orphanage etc. all added up some good elements to the movie. Nontheless, the superb performance of each of the roles in the movie did really help to make the movie a real good one. You can feel their feelings and draw yourself in the story as if you were among them watching and participating in what was happening. Of course, needless to say, the perfect match of the soundtrack has given the movie a pair of wings to take flight.
Rating:
Summary: Cider House Rules
Review: This is a beautiful transfer onto disc for a wonderful classic movie!
Rating:
Summary: Good Film, Many Touching Moments -- Caine is Great !
Review: John Irving adapted his novel for the screen and kept many of the best parts. The film is set in rural Maine in the late 1930s. Much of the film centers of the orphanage run by the crusty Dr. Larch, wonderfully played by Michael Caine. He cares deeply for the orphans, especially for the grown-up Homer (Tobey Maguire) who has remained at the orphanage. The scenes in the orphanage are very touching, and the hurt that Larch feels when Tobey chooses to leave the orphanage is quite real. The movie also tells the tale of Tobey's life outside of the orphanage (and shows the doctor trying to get him back) as Tobey works on an apple farm. The characters are very well-drawn and very believable. Most of the film is quite engaging, though I found that it sometimes dragged when we moved from the Larch/Tobey relationship. In particular, there was a very rather extended and unsettling subplot of incest in a farmworker's family that really did not add much to the movie at all. By and large, this is a very good movie with great characters, real human interest, and and an excellent viusal look in terms of the period it covers. If you like the movie, the book builds on it very nicely, though the plot diverges in that it takes the story well beyond the time covered by the movie.
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