Rating: 
Summary: SCREENPLAY BY THE AUTHOR
Review: I read that novel a few years ago,and this film i beleive does it justice.The fact that the author himself did the adaptation to the screen helps a lot;after all it is his baby.Previous adaptations of JOHN IRVING'S books(THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP and THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE(a mess))were not of the same quality.There are however two points i want to single out here:the fact that HOMER can practice medecine with a fake diploma is rather hard to take;it is also never explain to us why the doc(MICHAEL CAINE)always needs ether to find some sleep.Is he a drug addict?Personnaly,i would have cut the episode of the black man having made his own daughter pregnant,but it helps us to understand that HOMER has not lost what he had learned before.
Rating: 
Summary: Life commitment
Review: Sometimes your life is hard but is the life you have and you have to live it.Not all the people get to develop this kind of commitment required to solve hard life problems to another people that are not their family in law but are their family in your heard. Sometimes people who has not education or life options can not see the way to live being happy, but sometimes appears somebody who made this happend as this DOCTOR....without a formal degree but who deserve to be call DOCTOR always in capital letters.
Rating:
Summary: Cider House Fools
Review: Could be that I was a little harsh on the title but I was thinking of the scene in which the hero falls in love with the heroine who was so wishy-washy over the young war pilot that it made me sorta, well, ill. The doctor's performance (I'm omitting names here on purpose for those who haven't seen the movie) is extraordinary (as usual) and the nurses are superb. The children add a definite charm and give the movie substance. As I watched the movie, I became quite involved with the story and found myself rewinding some parts to simply enjoy a scene again. The actual Cider House rules are a bit off-beat and really don't play much into the story but the story itself is surprising and wonderfully portrayed by the actors. I really liked this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Let's Be Intellectually Honest Here...
Review: This movie isn't just a "pleasant" little "coming-of-age" story. The rolling hills, Fall colors and pretty faces are just superficial aspects of what really amounts to a somewhat preachy morality play, in favor of ethical relativism and "choice." There can be no doubt that this film is an argument in favor of what philosophy majors call "ethical relativism." M. Caine's character practically holds your hand and spells it out for you...it isn't subtle. Ethical relativism is the belief that there are no steadfast rules in life, no fundamental principles to adhere to...only subjective choices made under ever-changing conditions. Therefore no person has the right to "judge" another person's actions. This is very convenient for those of us who wish to behave in a less than respectable fashion. There are no heroes, and no villains--no concepts of "better" and "worse." We act as we see fit, and no one has the right to impede us. Ironically, we ARE asked to think of this world-view as "better." We ARE supposed to see Tobey Maguire's performance of an abortion in the end as a sort of spiritual maturation, as if he has graduated from his infantile revulsion towards the inherent violence of this act by embracing the relativism of it all. The only people we ARE allowed to judge for the worse, apparently, are those who do not share this "sophisticated" world-view (as is evident from many of the posts on this site). We attack those who have not abandoned their principles, calling them "naive," "closed-minded," "faint-hearted" and simple. We make generalizations and call them fundamentalists and zealots and hypocrites, all the while taking the moral high-road that we criticize them for allegedly taking. Understand that this movie IS about supporting a particular political/philosophical viewpoint, and attacking those who disagree...whether you like to call it propaganda is up to you.
Rating:
Summary: On my Top Ten List of 1999
Review: The Cider House Rules is based on a novel by the fine American writer, John Irving. Over the years, it has proved difficult to translate his works into movies. The results have ranged from fair [The World According to Garp] to dismal [Hotel New Hampshire]. This time around, Mr. Irving chose to take a more active role in the process, and the results are splendid. The first part of the movie is set in an orphanage in rural Maine in the late 1940s. Homer Wells [Tobey Macguire] is a young man who has spent his entire life there and is its oldest orphan. Fortunately for him, he has been taken under the wing of kindly, eccentric Dr. Wilber Larch [Michael Caine] who has been in charge of the place for many years. He has worked so closely with Dr. Larch that he now knows as much about medicine as almost any doctor. Still, he is in an odd situation. Not only is he not really a doctor, he's never been to high school. He is all knowledge and no credentials. As far as Dr. Larch is concerned, Homer can stay there forever and eventually wind up running the orphanage. Homer, however, yearns to see the world. One afternoon a beautiful woman named Ashley [Charlize Theron] appears with her fiance. She is there to have an abortion. Dr. Larch has performed many of these, every one of them illegal, because he has come to believe that there are simply too many unwanted children in the world. This is the one subject that Homer is in total disagreement on with his mentor. After the operation, Homer leaves the orphanage with Ashley and her boyfriend. This begins the second story line, which in the end ties in with the first one. Michael Caine won Best Supporting Actor for his role. His is one of the most memorable characters in recent times, as well as one of the most poignant. His love of the children in his care is unconditional, while at the same time he is dismayed and saddened by a world that allows these innocents to be so callously cast aside. Tobey Macguire, as I have stated before, is one of our most gifted actors. It is always amazing to me to see such masterful and understated performances by one so young. As for the set design and photography, The Cider House Rules is about as good as it gets. Rachel Portman has contributed a brilliant and melancholy musical score. With the current abortion controversy raging like the Hatfield and McCoy feud, it is reassuring that Miramax Films had the courage to make this movie at all. The Cider House Rules treats the subject with great dignity and proves once more that, in any area, where there is a rule, there is an exception.
Rating:
Summary: I liked this movie
Review: So much, that I watched it five times. At least the last time I caught it, I got to see the entire thing. On the first level, you have Michael Caine's character that doesn't want any new doctors on staff at the orphanage. Everyone on staff, including Tobey McGuire's character and the children know that Caine's character doesn't want anyone else finding out about his addiction to ether and his willingness to perform illegal abortions. While new blood would bring some sort of financial backing for the orphanage, the head doctor had the above mentioned liberal flaws. Tobey McGuire's character realized that he had to learn how to do something else instead of assist the head doctor, just in case his stay at the orphanage was "abruptly ended". He had been adopted three times and returned three times. Out in the real world, he discovered what his true calling was when he discovered that Rose was pregnant. Sorry, you are going to have to watch the movie to find out who the father is. The one thing I didn't like was that in spite of these rules that governed his job as apple-picker, his place at the orphanage, and the rules of common decency, everyone seemed to know when to break the rules, even the people over McGuire. Rose's condition could have been avoided, if someone from the camp reported her condition, but that would mean scandal for the rest of the pickers and loss of income. She was still young enough for foster care. MGuire knew the girl he slept with belonged to someone else. It did hurt him but he knew better that to fool around with a person who would go back to the man that got her pregnant the first time they showed up at the orphanage.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Movie
Review: I suppose since I am pro-choice all the stuff on abortion in this movie really does not bother me at all. This movie is definitely not for pro-lifers. I agree with some of the other reviewers, Hollywood definitely has a political agenda that it puts forth in its movies, but I really don't see how that detracts from the movies all that much because I really liked this film very much. I really like Tobey Maguire; I think he is a very good actor and his character, Homer Wells, is a very likeable young man that we want to see succeed in life as more than an apple picker, which makes the ending very satisfying for me in some regards. The best part of the movie is definitely the beginning, which takes place in the orphanage, but I do think that it was really important for Homer to leave the orphanage and experience more of life. The ending of the movie is bittersweet and kind of unrealistic, but this does not detract from the overall quality of this film. Lasse Hallstrom is a wonderful director and I am a devoted fan of his movies. Personally, I liked the movie because it raised some issues and made some arguments that pro-lifer's needed to hear. Obviously, Hollywood's political agenda is going to make people mad when it disagrees with their political agenda.
Rating: 
Summary: Leave the abortion issue for a bit
Review: Yes the film has a lot to say about abortion. But as that's clearly not all it's about, and as most of the reviews below are as full of propaganda as the movie they're complaining about, let's leave that issue and just focus on the film.
The first half is great. The orphanage scenes are really well done, capturing the mix of companionship and loneliness that all the children feel. Michael Caine is lovable and charismatic as Dr. Wilbur Larch, and his accent's not too bad. Tobey Maguire is a bit monotone unfortunately, but I guess that's the character. The kids as a whole are great.
The problems are in the second half, when Maguire's character Homer leaves the orphanage to become an apple picker and "discover life." This is also when the film becomes formulaic, drawn out, and frankly boring. Charlize Theron is completely charmless as Candy, the girl that Homer's in love with, and the whole incest angle which unfolds between the head apple-picker and his daughter (that's not giving much away, it's just annoying) is completely contrived just to tie Homer's moral dilemma up nicely, as is what happens to Candy's real fiance, who is away at war for most of the film. Still, the first half is excellent, and leaves me wishing that Homer had never left the orphanage.
Rating: 
Summary: UNABASHED PRO-ABORTION PROPAGANDA.
Review: I have certainly seen my share of movies that would appropriately be called manipulative. This one pretty much takes the cake though. Michael Caine plays Dr. Wilbur Larch, a self-medicating doctor who is both the head of an orphanage and an illegal abortion provider. One of the orphanage's residents is Homer Wells, played by Tobey Maguire. Alas, Homer is all grown up now because he was never adopted out. He is a medical assistant for Dr. Larch, who has sort of taken on a paternal role for Homer. Homer is more than happy to help out Dr. Larch but he refuses to perform any of the abortions. Dr. Larch spends much of the first half of the film trying to tell Homer how noble and good for mankind abortions are. This brings us to the second half of the film. Candy, played by Charlize Theron, comes to the orphanage/abortion clinic and gets an abortion. Homer becomes a bit enamored with Candy and at the same time has an inner desire to get away from the only place he has ever known and see the world. He asks Candy's boyfriend if he can accompany them back to wherever they are going. Homer ends up becoming a humble apple picker and one day is faced with the inevitable. **SPOILER** This really isn't much of a spoiler because it is painfully obvious from the start what is going to happen. Homer encounters a young woman who is a victim of incest. Of course, she is now pregnant from her father's dirty deeds. Homer has his epiphany and sees how important abortions are and provides one for her. Thankfully, the movie is soon over afterwards. Don't let anyone tell you that the real story of "The Cider House Rules" isn't actually about abortion. They'll tell you it is really about a young man's journey of personal self-discovery or similar tripe. This movie could so easily have been that except that every few minutes the topic of abortion comes up front and center. This is simply a well-funded and decently acted piece of pro-abortion propaganda. If you go for that sort of thing then this will be right up your alley. Personally...it made me sick.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and thought provoking film
Review: I was moved by the emotional depth of this movie. The cast, music, scenery and costumes were all top notch. Have some tissues on hand, for this one will touch your heart.
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