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The Cider House Rules (1999)

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375 comments in total

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38 out of 40 people found the following comment useful :-
Funny, moving, incredibly well-done, 27 December 1999

Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) from United States

I didn't think it was possible, but one of John Irving's most difficult books was condensed by the author himself (the last third of the book is gone) into a very very good movie. All the acting is great (especially the nice low key performances by Macguire and Caine), BEAUTIFULLY shot (in Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts), a score that fits the movie like a glove and fully realized three-dimensional characters. Plot-wise there's nothing new (young man goes out to see the world, discovers himself, etc etc) but the cast makes it seem new. They all find depth in roles that have been done before--especially Caine who speaks with a very convincing Maine accent! Bring lots of tissues with you--the movie is sad and disturbing at points (all kept in the PG-13 rating however), but it has a happy ending. Well worth seeing. See it on a BIG screen--all the beautiful shoots won't work on TV.

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31 out of 40 people found the following comment useful :-
A Good Movie For A Cold Winter's Day, 16 February 2000

Author: Drew-44 from USA

Despite the various good reviews of the movie, I was a bit skeptical about the movie due to the fact that it was based on a John Irving novel. What I found was a warm, sweet film, that was well cast and proved to be unpredictable just when it appeared you had it figured out. Tobey Maguire gives an excellent performance as a man/boy seeking his place in the world. He is supported by an excellent cast, particularly Michael Caine, despite a number of "accent" lapses. Even though they were relegated to small roles, it was great to see Jane Alexander and Kate Nelligan on the big screen once again. Charlize Theron continues to show that she is not only beautiful, but can act in a wide range of roles as well. Interesting casting as well in using Hip-Hop/R&B artists, Erykah Badu and Heavy D in small, but important parts.

The movie was a wonderful mix of laughter, tears, and human emotion, and magnificently directed by Halle Lasström. Kudos to all those involved.

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26 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
Moral dilemmas presented in an easily digestible form, 27 March 2000

Author: Chris Docker (eyeforfilm) from Scotland, United Kingdom

Sentimental but well-told, visually beautiful and enjoyable story of an orphanage and the moral dilemmas of abortion, exploring emotional issues from leaving home and fatherhood, to first love, self-discovery and the burdens of responsibility. "Sometimes you have to break the rules to make things right."

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24 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
Sometimes you must break rules to straighten the situation., 23 March 2000

Author: Michael O'Keefe from Muskogee OK

This movie will be looked at from many different views. I forgot about race and religion and watched a very good movie about the human condition. John Irving did the screenplay of his own novel. A young boy, played by Tobey Maguire, is born and raised in an orphanage. He is taught the ways of childbirth and abortion by the headmaster, Dr. Larch, played by Michael Caine. The young boy wants to be more useful in life and goes on his own way to end up working in an apple orchard and learning about lobster fishing.

The Maguire boy/man character fights with his own morals and lack of worldliness as the movie progresses. The predictable ending probably couldn't have been any better. Life happens. Bad things often happen to good people. This movie does question your thoughts of humanity.

I found raw emotion, humor and tenderness in this movie. The story is set in Maine; but actually filmed in Vermont and Connecticut too. Scenery is awesome. Maguire's timid, monotone character does take some getting used to. Caine was very good. Charlize Theron proved that not only is she beautiful, but she can act as well. Erykah Badu did extremely well in a small, but important role. This movie is worthy of its many Oscar nominations.

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21 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
inspirational, 21 April 2004
Author: Tabitha from France

This movie was very inspirational to me and was very hopeful. I think that Michael Caine and Tobey Maguire did a fabulous job and some of the scenes were so moving that I was almost in tears just because of the emotion. Definitely not cheesy, I respect that it raises important issues, makes you consider your values. It made me think again about everything I've always believed, and challenged me to think beyond the obvious.

Although I haven't read the book, clearly this is an original story by John Irving, and more sentimental than I would expect from him.

Note: Not appropriate for children under 14, many friends of mine have said it should have been rated R.

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21 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Wonderful film!, 12 September 2004
Author: AlbyThompson from Oviedo, Spain

This is one of my favourite films (if not my favourite), so I cannot be altogether objective, but I must say I find it an eye-opener. It's a lesson on tolerance carried out by a really talented cast and crew.

Everyone fits in his/her role, although the movie is more Maguire's than anyone else's. He's definitely a natural, and while other actors in the business try to impress the audience and make the most to show their talent, Maguire acts with subtlety and thoughtfulness.

The film might seem a bit slow for some people accustomed to more pacey and epic films. However, those who have read the novel will realize just how fast everything goes.

Rachel Portman's score is truly beautiful: probably one of her best.

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21 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-
a film of many strengths and weaknesses, 13 August 2000
Author: Roland E. Zwick (magneteach@aol.com) from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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.

`The Cider House Rules' is more a thing of bits and pieces than a fully integrated, wholly satisfying work of cinematic art. But much of it is so powerful and extraordinary that it is a film that, despite its missed potential, still manages to stay with one long after it is over.

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13 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
One of 1999's Best, 25 February 2001

Author: gbheron from Washington, DC

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Cider House Rules" is the best translation of a novel to film that I've ever seen. It must help that the novelist adapts his own work and writes the screenplay. This novel is a large, complex work with many characters and sub-plots. It would have been easy for the screenwriter to become bogged down in details and losing their way. Irving doesn't. He grabs at the major thematic thread and defines an engrossing tale of growing up and discovering one's self and one's calling. Set in rural Maine during World War II we follow Homer Wells, adolescent ward of an orphanage run by Dr. Larch. Visually it's a dark foreboding place, put emotionally full of love and happiness, excepting the sad women who trek to the orphanage to unburden themselves of their pregnancies, either by adoption or (illegal) abortion. Dr. Larch helps with both. Dr. Larch has also provided Homer with an education in practical obstetrics that would be the envy of any medical school. I don't want to go on further with the plot, it's a sweeping tale told with great acting, camera work, and scoring.

What worries me about this near perfect film is that my views are colored by having first read the novel. The characters and locations in the movie are exactly as I visualized them. It's spooky. And this provides me with information to fill in gaps about the character's motives and drives. How big a hindrance is not having read the book? I hope not much, because I feel this is one of the best movies of 1999.

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14 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Poignant and powerful, 19 August 2000

Author: FlickJunkie-2 from Atlanta, GA

Nineteen ninety-nine was an outstanding year for adaptations of major literary works, but of all the great books that came to the screen last year, this is my favorite. John Irving's novel and adaptation is one of the most complete stories I can remember in many years. It is poignant, exhilarating, and astutely human in its scope, presenting a myriad of human emotions and experiences.

Often, when a story attempts to cross genres so broadly, it fails from lack of depth or insufficiency of the writer or director to meet the variable demands of such a wide-ranging treatment. This film was a comedy, a tragedy, a romance, a human-interest story, a character study, and a period piece, and each element was excellently done.

This was all accomplished without sacrificing the philosophical and emotional depth Irving imbues in all his works. Irving weaves a strong moral into this story; that rules need to be questioned and that being human is not so easily codified. He revisits this theme repeatedly, with each character facing dilemmas regarding societal and personal rules that are difficult to reconcile in the given situations.

If there is one thing that stands out about this story, it is its human realism. These are ordinary people struggling with problems we all face. We come to have affection for almost all of them, and can identify with their tribulations. Although the story is excessively sentimental and fatalistic, it reminds us that life is complicated and doesn't always turn out the way we plan or hope.

From a filmmaking perspective, we could not have asked more from Lasse Hallstrom. Known most in the U.S. for his direction of ‘What's Eating Gilbert Grape', Hallstrom has been making wonderful films in Europe for almost twenty years. However, this film will certainly go down as his finest work. In the featurette on the DVD, he said that when he goes to Blockbuster with his daughter and sees it on the shelf, he will have a feeling of pride; and well he should.

This motion picture was beautifully filmed with rich cinematography, breathtaking locations, and precise period props and costumes. However, the greatest achievement for Hallstrom, working in concert with Irving, was to orchestrate a large cast in such a way that no character seemed insignificant. Hallstrom took great care to do enough development of each character (often just visually without any dialogue) that he made us care for each of them. He gave the film an emotional depth and breadth that is difficult to achieve in two hours. His work with the children in the orphanage was superb, bringing forth their innocence and enthusiasm without minimizing their plight.

The acting was uniformly outstanding. Tobey Maguire infused Homer with the right combination of idealism, naiveté and inner strength to make him an unassuming but powerful lead. Charlize Theron continues to impress me with her acting ability. Besides her enchanting girl-next-door attractiveness, she showed terrific range in a character that at first seemed shallow, but later proved to be quite complex.

Michael Caine has had a legendary career spanning close to half a century. He has long been one of my favorite actors. His performance here was powerful and well deserving of the acclaim he received. Dr. Larch was an extremely complex character; egotistical, self-abusive, manipulative and recalcitrant, yet a saintly, self-sacrificing and loving crusader for the good of the children. Caine's ability to span that range was remarkable.

Finally, I have the highest praise for Delroy Lindo as Mr. Rose, the orchard foreman. Lindo's bright smile and enthusiasm created a rock solid character with charm, strength and simple wisdom. He captures our admiration immediately, and despite his despicable act, we cannot help but pity him in the end.

After having seen all the films that were nominated by the Academy for best picture last year, I have to say that this was my personal favorite. It wasn't as flashy as the rest; in fact, this was downright old fashioned in its approach. They just don't write stories like this anymore, and that's a shame. I rated it a 10/10. In its quiet way, it captured my heart.

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11 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Caine's Rules, 13 March 2000
Author: Steve Baker (s.baker@iig.com.au) from Cairns Australia

The Cider House Rules is a folksy tale about a boy from an orphanage and his coming of age. He's been trained to deliver babies at the orphanage by the benevolent Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine).

Notably this boy's passage into manhood necessitates him accepting the responsibility of also performing illegal abortions! Now there's a twist. John Irving, also wrote the books The World According To Garp and The Hotel New Hampshiire, made into films of the same name, as well as A Prayer For Owen Meany which was made into the puzzling Simon Birch, a film Irving vigourously disowns. Irving subsequently, in the case of Cider House, has also written the screenplay.

The actual cider house rules are a minor element of a rambling film that is full of such minor events.They are a non-consequential, ignored set of laws meant to govern the behaviour of the workers who bunk in the cider house on an apple farm.

But life's like that, or so John Irving and his film would have you believe. It's just that usually films concentrate a little more on life's more tumultuous moments.

Young Homer Wells (our budding unlicensed doctor) is played delightfully by Tobey Maguire (Pleasantville)with a sweet smile and sleepy eyes. Those of you who prefer your actors to be more dynamic might find Maguire to be too even, but in this film his style was just the ticket.

He's one of the boys who were never chosen to be adopted at the orphanage. There are some touching scenes centred around the children in particular not being selected, hovering with their bags packed.

Homer sets off to see the world with new friends Candy (Charlize Theron) and Wally (Paul Rudd). They had attended the orphanage for an abortion.

Homer sees the sea for the first time. He learns how to pick apples and to get on with his work mates. He has a romance. And he learns how to accept responsibility for his and other's actions away from the shelter of the orphanage. And that's about it. And that's just enough.

The mood of the film accentuates a dreamy continuance; years and seasons merge. Life goes on. The apples grow. Relationships develop. The scenery is beautiful. The black labourers accept their lot.

This is life (and death) seen from the personal; a snapshot of middle, rural America; a land where you're meant to just get on with it and accept your lot.

The Cider House Rules is sensitively directed and written with an emphasis on people caring for each other. It's a bit of a weepy. Even villains are given their good sides.

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