The Cider House Rules (1999)

I saw this movie many years ago (I think in the theater) and remembered really enjoying it. After watching it again, I still really liked the story. There's not really much to say about this movie other than the fact that it is extremely solid. Everything about it is good and it's hard to find many flaws at all in this film. Perfectly cast and well-acted, the story, emotion, score, acting...it was all right on, especially the script and performance by Michael Caine, both of which won Oscars. It's a really relaxing movie with beautiful scenery and soundtrack. Overall, this is a touching movie that I recommend to everyone.

Cider House Rules is the best movie I have ever seen! It is full of so much meaning for all of humanity. Tobey Mcguire made the film what it is; a wonderful story about life. No wonder it won academy awards. Anyone who has been in an orphanage knows what love and acceptance can be in making a life. Tobey Maguire exemplifies in his daily life all the qualities we should strive to have.

Tobey Maguire pulls you in with is eyes and his hint of a smile, and you can't believe that Charlize Theron will throw him over. I love movies that get me choked up, and this one has a lot of great heart- tugging scenes. This is a movie I save for special times when I want to feel sad, but when Homer returns to the orphanage the tears are joyful. There is a purity about this movie and it comes from so many places not the least of which is the stunning Maine scenery, as well as the sparseness and closeness of the settings. The train station at the opening is bare. The orphanage is surrounded by forest. The apple farm is shot at close range, from above, only the buildings are seen. The ocean scene takes place in a closed cove. There are almost no wide shots, vistas, no crowds, no village, It's isolated, insular, a little world where Homer Wells becomes the benevolent father in a little lost world of love.

"The Cider House Rules" is a very well-crafted film. The acting is generally quite good, the music terrific and the story interesting...though also depressing as can be and a bit repellent. The story is set in two places--at a god-awful orphanage and at an orchard nearby.When the story begins, you learn from the Doctor (Michael Caine) that little Homer was adopted and returned twice...and so the Doctor has raised him himself and taught this teen to be a doctor. And so, in this world of "makin' your own rules", he has the young man deliver babies and even observe abortions...though Homer thinks abortions are wrong. Of course, you KNOW that this will come back to haunt him later...after he leaves the orphanage to inexplicably become an apple-picker. Dying kids who cannot breathe, abortions, abandoned babies, incest and murder---this film is the ultimate in awfulness. Enjoyable it clearly is not...though the film did win two Oscars. One, oddly, was for Michael Caine. While I love Caine, in this film his accent was just bizarre...yet he got the award. I assume it was like John Wayne's win for "True Grit"...not one of his best performances but given more for his body of work than anything else. I could see the film's technical merits but found it about as enjoyable as chewing on glass.