Imagine Dickens with a lush soundtrack and with the surroundings bathed in a rosy glow, and you have the feel of Lasse Hallstrom's film "The Cider House Rules," a rather disconcerting adaptation of John Irving's novel. While the effect is pleasant to watch, it doesn't really say anything of consequence--odd, because the novel had plenty to say, and Irving himself adapted the novel for the screen. The result is a competent but not particularly memorable film.
The setting is Maine between the world wars. Tobey Maguire stars as one Homer Wells, an orphan born and raised at St. Cloud's, which doubles as orphanage and abortion clinic, the latter covertly, of course. Michael Caine is Dr. Larch, the compassionate doctor who runs St. Cloud's, performing abortions and delivering babies as necessary, and supervising the various waifs under his care. Dr. Larch takes Homer on as his assistant, and Homer gets a thorough medical education without ever going to high school--but, don't you know, he longs to Get Out And See The World, and when Candy (Charlize Theron) comes to St. Cloud's for an abortion, with boyfriend Wally (Paul Rudd) in tow, Homer, rejecting Dr. Larch's entreaties to stay at St. Cloud's, hitches a ride to the coast with them and takes up apple-picking in Candy's family orchard alongside a set of poor black migrant workers. Homer discovers along the way that Dr. Larch's ethics had more of an effect on him than he realizes, though, and complications ensue. If it sounds confusing, trust me, it's not. You can doze off for long stretches and still follow the story perfectly well.
Among the prevailing themes in the book was abortion, since that's the heart of the conflict between Homer and Dr. Larch--Homer won't perform abortions, Dr. Larch will. It's implicit that abortion is at the heart of Homer leaving the orphanage, since succeeding Dr. Larch as head physician implies taking over his abortion duties as well. But while the abortion issue in the book was polemical--Irving was very clearly taking a side, namely pro- abortion--it just seems pat here; the conflict is resolved, if that's the way to put it, in a way that seems firmly within the stock arguments of the abortion debate, and it's unlikely that this film's treatment of the problem will add anything to that debate. Granted, it's hard to imagine a film that could change anyone's mind on this particular issue, but this doesn't feel like a particularly thoughtful consideration. The book uses the larger theme of rules and the necessity of rule-breaking to set up its abortion argument--the "rules" of the title are a set of directives posted in the orchard's bunkhouse, universally ignored--but the book also had the luxury of several additional minor characters and quite a few more events to make that argument. The film's treatment of the subject, by contrast, intermittently appears and then leaves again for long stretches, and thematically the whole thing wanders.
Part of the problem is Maguire. He has a winning smile, but not much more, and he's not particularly good at conveying anything other than indecision. That's not necessarily a handicap for some parts, but Irving's protagonists are all written blandly, straight men for the various zany and peculiar events and characters around them, and hence they need actors with vibrant personalities to play them. Maguire, alas, has very little personality, and what he has doesn't exactly seem principle-driven and resolute. Because of that, then, Homer's moral odyssey is fairly unconvincing--we don't really buy it; the convictions never seemed all that deeply held anyway. (His face, which is almost entirely expressionless, doesn't help his cause.) The problem is exacerbated by Caine's vivid performance as Dr. Larch, since Caine seems genuinely animated by his convictions--and with the character on one side of the debate ablaze with moral certitute and the other simply saying his lines, the eventual result feels like a bit of a foregone conclusion. Maguire isn't bad, by any means, but he underplays all his most important moments, including one crucial scene where he's supposed to be burning with indignation but in fact sounds no more than mildly annoyed. Raise that voice, Tobey! Chew some scenery! Wake *up*! Theron, for her part, has very little to do besides be attractive, and Delroy Lindo, as one of the orchard workers, is nicely expressive--but the story revolves around Maguire.
A movie that spends as much time as this one does in and around an orphanage has inherent sentimentality risks, and Hallstrom doesn't do enough to stave off that element. A subplot involving a boy (named Fuzzy, of all things) who's permanently confined in a breathing tube and watches people wistfully through the plastic--no points for picking up on the Poignant Metaphor here--gets far too much attention in light of its minimal role in the story. Even the orchard scenes, which are presumably meant to represent a grittier side of life, look too much like a New England postcard to feel all that real. There's an irony here, since anyone who's read Irving's novels knows that there's nothing even vaguely sentimental about them--the characters are drawn with an unsparing eye, and their faults and foibles are always on display. Without Irving's prose to keep the comic tone going, though, the movie alternates between sweet and ponderous, neither of which is a particularly Irvingish quality. The problem might have been avoided had the script not eliminated a certain character, a girl at the orphanage who left it to find Homer; Melony, as she was called, was far too earthy to sentimentalize, and she served as a foil of sorts. As it is, there's very little dramatic tension in the film, except at a few key points. (There's another irony here, of course, namely that the sentimentality doesn't seem to affect Maguire--he may be surrounded by heart- tugging orphans, but his heart doesn't seem to be tugged.) The soundtrack, sometimes appropriate but often intrusive, heightens the melodramatic feel.
All that said, though, there are things to like about Cider House Rules. Prominent among them is a marvelous performance by Caine, justly nominated for an Oscar; he conveys the fatherly instincts that he has for Homer without ever seeming mawkish. There's a back-and-forth letter-writing scene between him and Homer done by voice-over that's particularly resonant, arguably more so than any of the scenes where the two are actually together--perhaps it's because Maguire is more effective as voice-over (his voice has more expression than his face) than actually on screen, but the dialogue crackles in that scene more than at any other point in the film. Caine, who's British, adopts a New England accent almost perfectly, and combines waspishness (toward those who don't understand his mission) with affection (for the orphans) in a rather nuanced way. Moreover, there's a subtheme about maturity as measured in the ability to make decisions that's actually rather well done: Candy's immaturity is indicated by her inability to make decisions, and Homer eventually learns that growing up means having to make hard choices.
Still, the heart of this film, for better or worse, is Maguire's character, and Maguire doesn't really carry off the part. It's not a bad effort, but it works better as an attractive spectacle than as an actual story.
Duncan Stevens dns361@merle.acns.nwu.edu
But buy me a singer to sing one song-- Song about nothing--song about sheep-- Over and over, all day long; Patch me again my thread-bare sleep.
--Edna St. Vincent Millay
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