When it was first published in 1985, John Irving's "The Cider House Rules" aroused a fair amount of controversy because of its staunchly pro-abortion stance. In adapting his book to the screen, Irving has softened up its politics a bit and given a slightly sentimental gloss to his extremely Dickensian tale of orphan Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire) and his adventures in and outside the St. Cloud's Orphanage. Even so, "Cider House" the movie is unlikely to win any endorsements from the pro-life coalition.
Nor, for that matter, is it certain to enchant fans of the novel, since Irving has pared his almost 600-page work down to its essentials, cutting numerous characters and deleting scores of colorful incidents along the way.
A couple of years ago, actor Tom Hulce won rave reviews for his staging of "The Cider House Rules" as an epic two-part play at a Los Angeles theater, and seeing the film might convince you Hulce knew the material better than its author. The two-hour cinematic version of "Cider" comes off as a piece of carefully written, warmly played exposition leading up to a dramatic payoff that never materializes. Bathed in an autumnal New England glow and tenderly scored by Rachel Portman, this is an extremely pretty movie to look at and listen to, but although Irving's basic plot remains, the richness of his prose hasn't truly transferred to the screen.
The picture is directed by Swedish-born Lasse Hallstrom, who, in the years since his breakthrough feature "My Life As A Dog," has specialized in chronicling unorthodox and dysfunctional families ("Once Around," "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?", "Something to Talk About"). In "Cider," the patriarch of the story is Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine), who risks his career offering abortions to unhappily pregnant women in WWII era Maine instead of dispatching them to back-alley butchers. Homer, his assistant, has more qualms about providing such services, until he meets first a beautiful orchard worker in the family way named Candy (Charlize Theron), then the tragic Rose Rose (singer Erykah Badu, doing impressive work in a difficult role) who carries both an unwanted baby and a ghastly secret.
The title refers to a typewritten list of restrictions posted in the bunkhouse where Homer, Rose and some of the other migrant workers live. Everyone ignores the decrees, perhaps because as several characters note, "sometimes you have to break the rules to set things straight." Picking apples in and of itself certainly calls to mind the Garden of Eden, and that's scarcely the most daring behavior these characters indulge in.
Maguire brings an immediate likability to Homer -- he looks almost like a young Dick Van Dyke -- and provides a solid anchor for the saga. Caine is also fine, as are Theron and the charismatic Paul Rudd as the young lovers who help introduce Homer to the world outside St. Cloud's. Still, the movie stubbornly refuses to take off. Exactly what's holding it back is unclear, but it could have something to do with the way Irving and Hallstrom have tried to subvert a sprawling, occasionally shocking epic of a book into a mellow, conventional mainstream film. Somewhere along the way, "The Cider House Rules" turned into something almost as safe as milk. James Sanford
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