The Cider House Rules

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Summary: Outstanding Performances By Caine And Maguire
Review: The boundaries of our lives sometimes seem self-ordained, while at other times they seem predetermined by a higher power, and life itself often becomes a quest to ascertain which is which. And so it was with a young man who grew up an orphan in the State of Maine, in the years preceding World War II, in "The Cider House Rules," directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Under the tutelage and watchful eye of Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine), the administrator of the orphanage in which Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire) had lived his whole life, Homer, by 1943, had become quite knowledgeable and adept in the field of medicine. What he lacked, however, was the formal education that would have enabled him to practice what he had learned, if indeed, he had so desired; which in fact he had not. The orphanage was a world unto itself, a loving haven for unwanted children, but a place apart; and a larger world loomed just beyond it's perimeter, a world Homer Wells wanted to see. And when circumstances present Homer with an opportunity to get away, he grabs it, and embarks upon his journey of discovery, much to the consternation of the good Dr. Larch, who fears that he has lost Homer-- whom he loves as a son-- to the world forever. And forever is a long, long time. Hallstrom presents the story with acuity and care, drawing upon the innate humanity of the characters--especially Dr. Larch and Homer-- to bring it all to life. While Dr. Larch epitomizes the benevolent nature of man, one who has known the world and has come into his own, has found the place from which he can do some good, Homer represents the longings of youth; no longer a boy, but a man who must discover on his own what Dr. Larch already knows. And, as it is in real life, it becomes a matter of experience; and though fate ultimately intervenes with a nudge in the right direction, it is Homer who decides the direction his own life will take-- it is he who finally realizes what is meant to be. And under Hallstrom's steady and skillful hand, the journey becomes, not only Homer's, but the viewer's as well, as he mines the emotional depths of the characters, making them people with whom the audience will be readily able to identify. Affecting an American accent for the first time in his career, Michael Caine gives a performance that deservedly earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He brings Dr. Larch so vividly to life, capturing the deep concern and humanity of the man, while conveying his sincerity and exposing his vulnerability; it's a complete and real portrayal, enriched with nuance and altogether memorable. As good as Caine is, however, the film clearly belongs to Maguire, who gives a masterfully understated performance as Homer. There is such expression in the pacific nature he lends to the character, along with a sense of mature acceptance that serve to accentuate his inner yearnings, that make Homer so believable, a person with whom it is easy to sympathize and relate. There is something of a wistful poet beneath his stoic, though gentle, outward appearance that makes him endearing. With a subtle ability, Maguire makes it clear that Homer is a person of intrinsic good, and it gives not only the character, but the performance, a ring of truth and integrity. It's exceptional work, and taken in conjunction with his turns in "The Ice Storm" and "Wonder Boys," firmly establishes Maguire as one of the best young actors in the business today. The extraordinary supporting cast includes Delroy Lindo (Mr. Rose), Charlize Theron (Candy), Paul Rudd (Wally), Jane Alexander (Nurse Edna), Kathy Baker (Nurse Angela), Kieran Culkin (Buster), Kate Nelligan (Olive Worthington), K. Todd Freeman (Muddy), Erykah Badu (Rose Rose) and Erik Per Sullivan (Fuzzy). Highlighted by outstanding performances and the sensitive interpretation and delivery of the story by Hallstrom, "The Cider House Rules" is a touching excursion into the depths of human emotions, and a taste of what life is all about. More than just a film, it's an experience; one that will create a lasting impression on your soul, and one that absolutely must not be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking and entertaining...
Review: The Cider House Rules is a movie that is both entertaining on the surface and filled with symbolism on a deeper level. This movie will please teenagers out for a good time and movie critics looking to analyze a movie rich in meaning.

To describe breifly the plot, a young man, Homer (an orphan from birth), ventures outside of his accustomed surroundings, as all young people eventually do. He finds himself living on an apple orchard plantation, earning his living as a field picker. During his time there, he falls in love with a woman who is already spoken for while he's living with the other hired hands in the "Cider House". The movie's namesake comes from a list of rules posted in the hand's quarters. Posted by the orchard's owner, the rules hardly relate to the servants or their behavior. By showing how "lower" people are effected by the regulations of "higher" people, the rules encumber the movies entire theme.

Homer is a unique inspiration to the other workers and is well respected in the orchard. Homer defies the theme because he is a white man thrown in with a group of black plantation workers, yet he aspires to learn and grow from them, reversing the idea converyed by the rules.

Homer's character shines hope on the human race and brightens the movie through his inspiration. The Cider House Rules is a breath of fresh air and leaves the viewer feeling refreshed. Homer's good will makes the movie and success - hands down.

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Summary: a joy....and not the book
Review: This is a wonderful book. And one should read it. Much of it is lost in Irvings adaptation of his own brilliant work...so much of the humor, depth and prose ...as well as characters, are lost(Farewell Melony)...but this is a very sweet film. Shot in the sweet nostalgic glow of a classic, Rules is a joy to look at. It deals with touchy subjects...but not in an absurdly preachy way. As you read these reviews, you will see people bringing up the abortion issue...but it is a film about life and the choices that one has to make while living. This is pro abortion...as well as it is pro family. It manages to create an idelible image of orphanages, and of the pain and joy found in such institutions. You won't forget Fuzzy Stone...you wont forget the faces of all the kids in St. Cloud's, and the work is fabulous. Like all of Irving, we are dealing with humans with foibles , pains, triumphs and failures. These characters are brought to light by the actors....Michael Caine is great, as is the solid nursing staff of Kathy Baker and Jane Alexander. Delroy Lindo, Erykah Badu, Macguire and Theron....they all are wonderful. I think this was a joyful film....not the book...but an experience on its own warm terms. And it really isn't that preachy...

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Summary: Abortions
Review: Although this movie was very well directed and had great performances by Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, and Delroy Lindo, I was thoroughly disgusted with the overwhelming pro-abortion theme. I watch movies to be entertained. I don't want to be preached to. This story was way off the mark.

I felt very ill after watching it because of the complete disregard for human life. The most obvious scenes were the disposals of the fetuses (and older?) into the fire in the back yard. The way it was filmed made it obvious that there should be no consideration whatsoever for the lives of babies, that they are to be thrown away at the whim of whatever parent just happens to be "inconvenienced" by their births.

I am a fan of Tobey Maguire and very much enjoyed his performance in "Ride with the Devil" a lot more than this garbage.

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Summary: What a Pleasure!!
Review: This was the first DVD we watched on our new player and what a pleasure. A wonderful story with rich lines and complex characters with beautiful interrelationships resonating with the joy of living and most importantly discovering whats important to you...

Loved the commentary which is part of the DVD bonus - the deleted scences and other materials embellish movie viewing considerably.

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Summary: You Can See It Coming From A Mile Away
Review: A lot of people aren't going to like what I have to say about "The Cider House Rules," but as a critic with my own movie review show, my personal opinion is that this film was a joke. Not a "funny, ha ha" joke, but a "predictable, blah blah blah" joke.

First, I have to say that the nomination for "Picture Of The Year" that "The Cider House Rules" received was stolen from much better films from 1999, such as "Magnolia" and "Being John Malkovich." Second, "The Cider House Rules" was just another example of the tired formula of Hollywood sneaking in the Independent Film formula of coming of age and passing it off in a different setting, hoping the audience doesn't catch on. And for the most part, it seems to have worked, achieving Oscar recognition. Tobey Maguire is an excellent actor, so it's sad to see him waste his time on such a predictable script. Especially the last half hour of the movie, which seems to get more jumbled as the movie reaches its end. It's like the author, who was writing the script based on his own book, realized that he only had 30 minutes left to work with, so he had to squeeze 200 pages into that time. The result is a film that feels the audience is far too dumb to understand the messages it's trying to get across, so it bludgeons the viewer into unconsciousness with its message. It's like the film keeps poking you with a stick while asking, "Do you get it yet? Huh? Huh? Do you get it? Bet you didn't see that one coming!" But you know what, you do see it coming.

All in all, I'm not trying to tell you what to think on the subject of the film. I'm just saying that the film does a poor job of explaining the material. It's like the film is making up excuses for everything, except for coming up for an excuse for its own failure as a movie.

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Summary: True American Beauty
Review: Although there are many differences between the story line of Irving's novel and the screenplay written by John Irving himself, the changes and rule bending in this adaptation are responsible for the most beautiful, pure hearted and touching story I have ever faced. A rich, although already very explored, terrain for heart-breaking and tear-rolling emotions is the set for this amazing fable. St.Cloud's is an orphanage located in Maine, where the main character of the story was brought up. With brilliant acting by Tobey Maguire and Michael Cane, this movie touched me in a way I never thought anyone could. I never thought of this story as a vehicle to commment on controversial topics, such as abortion and incest. I've always looked at it as a story of how far you have to go, what a battle you have to go through to finally be able to listen to your heart. In addition to the beautiful story line, the script, Lasse's direction, the original score(by Rachel Portman) and the photography of this movie help me classify it as a "master piece", it changed my life in a way I'll never be able to explain.

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Summary: SOMETHING IN IT TO STIR EVERYONE'S PASSIONS
Review: Surely you've heard the parable of the wise old man standing on the road between two towns. Each passerby asks him how are the people who live in the next town. Before answering, he first asks how the people were in the last town the traveler came from. And so the old man says that in the next town they're the same. Analogously, those whose world revolves around the issue of abortion, if they are against abortion the movie will offend them. Similarly, for those who favor a woman's right to choose an abortion, or not, they'll think it's a nice movie. But folks, the movie ain't about abortion! That's the "real life" peripheral issue. The movie's story is about life (or Life) and people having to find ways of navigating through it ... one way or the other. The tragedy of obsessing about political or moral issues is that it's hard to enjoy the art in movies like THE CIDER HOUSE RULES. To those whose world revolves around obsessing about abortion: get a life!

I thought the movie was about the relationship between an unwanted orphan and an aging doctor trying to run the St. Cloud orphanage in Maine, around the time of World War II. The contemplative young orphan Homer Wells (superbly acted by Tobey Maguire), is raised by Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) since babyhood. John Irving's screenplay from his own book, is full of internal and external conflict and emotion. Director Lasse Hallström from Sweden ("My Life As A Dog") gives the film an air of simpler times gone by (where did they get that old passenger steam train?). Basically, Dr. Larch wishes for this young fellow, his protogé, to stay with him forever. Essentially, Dr. Larch plans for Homer to take over the orphanage when he can no longer do it. Abortions (a non-issue for the movie) that the old doctor illegally provides to women who need it (one young girl dies from a self-inflicted one, arriving too late at St. Cloud for a medical one) is at first intuitively rejected by Homer. This is intersting since he's never been away from the orphanage. Everything he knows came from Dr. Larch and the nurses. In part, that is why the adolescent Homer wants to find out what the world is all about. That takes us to the second half of the movie: Homer leaves the orphanage by chance, when an unmarried couple Candy (Charlize Theron) and Army Air Corps bomber pilot Wally (Paul Rudd) visit Dr. Larch to get an abortion. Wally's mother owns an apple farm where Homer gets a job picking apples (because of the war there's a labor shortage). Wally goes back to the war, and soon Homer and Candy become an item.

It appears that few reviewers here had any feelings for the Black-White dynamics in THE CIDER HOUSE RULES played out on Wally's, Mom's apple farm. Homer is the only (and first) white guy amid a group of black apple pickers. What is most remarkable is that there's no racial tension between Homer and the other farm hands. Why? Growing up isolated in the St. Cloud orphanage Homer was not indoctrinated into bigotry and racism. Rather, Dr. Larch taught him medicine and compassion. Homer's "ignorance" about race (in the midst of an intensely racist society) permits him to become fully integrated with this group.

The irony in the film's title derives from the illiterate apple farm hands not being able to read the rules tacked up on the wall in their bunk house (the cider house rules). Year after year they've worked there and never knew what those rules were. One of them later speculates some ignorant white folks made the rules for black folks, never bothering to find out what is involved in day to day living in the bunk house. The group got along by living according to their own rules; a parallel situation to how Dr. Larch had to do things at the orphanage. In each case, indifferent society outside wants them to be there for fulfilling their functions ... but outside society is indifferent to their problems. Soon, Homer's previously anti-abortion position is challenged when faced with a pregnant teenager who got that way through her incestuous father (excellent acting by Delroy Lindo of a seemingly decent man concealing a sinister character) and foreman of the work crew. Lots of problems, lots of complication, some violence and law breaking; some trying to find solutions that satisfies the law without producing even more human misery.

The abortion "issue" was "merely" a dramatic vehicle to carry the story and develop Homer's character. The main issues in the movie seemed to be that life is tough, society by and large doesn't care much about what happens to even the most helpless and miserable children in it. And so people are left to solve these problems on their own.

I have to admit, some technical problems in this film do linger on. One is that by no stretch of the imagination could an albeit very medically talented 19 year old fellow be able to pass himself off as a "young doctor" to St. Cloud's board of trustees (even though Dr. Larch forged medical diplomas, etc. etc. so Homer could get his job). The other two problems are: the leaves on all but the apple trees are brown no matter what time of year the various scenes take place; and when Homer takes Candy to the movies in 1943, they see a newsreel about Jimmy Stewart enlisting in the army. But that was an event that, in fact, had taken place two years earlier. Why would it be in a newsreel?

By and large, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES has a lot of good in it. The picturesque photography is incredibly well executed, and the background music is terrific. Needless to say, the acting was great. In summary: Homer's grappling with moral choices is the classic coming-of-age. This film does a good job of handling it. The director, given the choices between overplaying and underplaying, has the actors underplaying their roles. That's part of the movie's charm coupled with it's being filled with a very broad range of characters and action. Understated as CIDER HOUSE may be, this was one of the richest and most humane films of 1999.

Rating:
Summary: Sentimental joy
Review: "The Cider House Rules" was a pleasant surprise. Instead of trying to be cutting edge or over the top, "The Cider House Rules" succeeds in making a beautiful film and that alone. This film has a good story (the movie was adapted from John Irving's novel), modestly good acting, and a good score.

"The Cider House Rules" is a simple story with well-recognized themes. An orphan boy named Homer(played by Toby Maguire) helps a doctor(played by Michael Caine) to take care of orphan children and perform abortions. However-like all teenagers in movies and books-Homer has a desire to see life and decides to go away with a couple who have just visited to do just that, see life. Michael Caine's character insists that Homer stay but of course doesn't listen. Toby and Michael have an excellent chemistry on film. On his travels with the couple, Homer falls in love and discovers a mystery hidden by a group of African-American slaves on an orchard.

The film is like learning French or listening to Handel; just beautiful all around. The Cinematography is brilliant and makes me want to go to Maine. The acting is well reserved and doesn't become mellow-dramatic or fake. The score(I bought it on CD after I saw the film) is also another great aspect of the film. From the dramatic theme to the simple piano numbers, the score adds to the greatness of the film.

I recommend this film to everyone and know you'll enjoy it. It won't be on your favorite film list or your favorite of '99 but will keep you inspired for awhile.

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Summary: whoever said it was just about abortion?
Review: the cider house rules has become a wonderful addition to my list of favorite movies in the past year or so. you can imagine, then, what my anger was upon coming across one of the reviews that is posted. the opinion of the writer was that there were absolutely no underlying issues in the cider house rules. the only one apparent to them was the issue of abortion. whatever happened to the incest? a daughter is impregnated by her father in this movie. did this person miss the part about leaving home to find yourself? and what about the most important theme of all? 'RULES ARE CONDITIONAL!' to say that this movie promotes abortion and is offensive to people who are against it, one suggests that 'the sixth sense' is offensive to people who don't believe in ghosts and 'star wars' is offensive to people who dislike science fiction. please. abortion is only used in this story as an example of one moral that can be thrown away in extreme circumstances. the movie shows to the people who watch it (as opposed to those who compare it to their own moral code) that rules can be broken, and if they are all applied (like the 'cider house rules') they can become rather ridiculous. it merely encourages people to look outside of the strict moral code that we imprision ourselves in, and discover all that we may have missed. i find the opinion, that the entire focus of this movie is on abortion, an insult to other movie-goers who may have been more than astounded by the way the MAIN theme of the cider house rules is presented.