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THE CIDER HOUSE RULES Send This Review to a Friend
John Irving's adaptation of his own novel "The Cider House Rules," which I first saw at the 1999 Toronto International Film festival, has a rich texture in story and ambience. Perhaps director Lasse Hallstrom's pacing is a bit to languid and could stand energizing, but otherwise the screen result is emotionally satisfying and often moving, thanks in no small measure to excellent performances in major and supporting roles.
Michael Caine has a dominant presence as Dr. Wilbur Larch, the kindly head of a Maine orphanage in the early 1920s, when the story begins. He helps unwed mothers and performs illegal abortions. The doctor has a weakness, using ether as a drug. One baby orphan, Homer, becomes Dr. Larch's favorite, and as Homer grows up, he absorbs informal medical training from Larch. The role of the grown Homer is played charmingly and with great depth of feeling by Tobey Maguire, who is especially prominent this year by virtue of his impressive lead performance in the Civil War epic "Ride With the Devil."
Homer, realizing there is a world beyond the orphanage and his ties to Larch, leaves when he gets a chance to go along with a friendly young couple Candy (Charlize Theron) and Wally (Paul Rudd) and try life on a farm. Theron's performance is a revelation; it shows a completely different side to her from her work as the ditsy, sexy model in Woody Allen's "Celebrity." The complications that develop, involving love, war sexual abuse on the farm and finally a choice that Homer must make when Larch is forced to leave the orphanage, enlarge the story. Occasionally too much is crammed into it, but Hallstrom, who directed "My Life as a Dog," has a way with narrative and manages to make the events interesting and involving.
Others in the cast who add to the texture include Delroy Lindo, Jane Alexander and Kathy Baker. Oliver Stapleton's cinematography captures the fullness of the country atmosphere that Irving and Hallstrom have worked to create. "The Cider House Rules" succeeds in making its points about medical devotion sometimes being more important than rigid regulations, and individual needs being more urgent than a distaste for abortion. The film never loses sight of its human dimensions, and both in Larch and Homer, Irving has created fascinating characters, realized fully through the performances by Caine and Maguire. A Miramax Films release.
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