‘Cider House Rules’ Was An Underdog From The Start

You know the uncomfortable feeling you get when you go to the movies with someone and you realize you are not enjoying the film nearly as much as they are? You feel like a kid just about to pop all the air out of a balloon or, worse yet, a know-it-all who must enlighten those whose tastes do not measure up. Alas, that is my dilemma with The Cider House Rules, which continues its run at Bethel Cinema. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture (and ultimately walking away with two trophies), this grandly emotional film is not without its merits, but is undoubtedly the least of the five movies which were tabbed for the top honor this year.

Of the Best Picture nominees, The Cider House Rules was the only one that hadn’t yet gotten a chance to be seen and digested by much of the movie-going public before the awards were announced last month. This is noteworthy because those of us who take in this picture now come to it, not just as any ol’ movie, but as (dramatic pause) an Oscar nominee. Featuring a screenplay adapted by John Irving from his own novel, The Cider House Rules follows the path of Homer Wells (Tobey Maquire), a precocious young man at the St. James orphanage in Maine during the ’40s. Never adopted, Homer is brought up under the tutelage of Dr Larch (Michael Caine) and learns of his mentor’s philosophy of “being of use,” which includes taking care of his fellow orphans, learning how to deliver babies, and the more controversial action of performing abortions. Homer objects to the latter and defers to Dr Larch whenever such services are requested by visitors who secret their way to the orphanage.

One such couple, Candy (Charlize Theron) and Wally (Paul Rudd), change Homer’s life when they agree to take him with them when they leave Dr Larch’s care. Hoping to see the world (or at least expand his horizons beyond the orphanage, Homer hops a ride with his new friends and leaves Dr Larch without his likely successor. Wally, whose family tends an apple grove, gives Homer a job at his orchard where the young lad joins up with a group of migrant workers who live in the cider house and tend the apple trees.

What begins as a scenic, sweeping and often bittersweet tale of life at an orphanage (complete with rosy-cheeked young actors seemingly born to break your heart with their cherubic faces, wide eyes and beaming smiles) becomes more of a polemic as the tale progresses. The opinionated, often blustery Dr Larch is never really challenged from his ethical stance by any formidable opponent because, after all, Homer is “just a boy,” who will soon learn what it means to be a man.

As directed by Lasse Hallstrom, The Cider House Rules, rated PG-13 for violence, mature themes and brief nudity, is dramatically engaging, mainly due to a moving score by Rachel Portman and some fine performances. Yet it also feels a little too pat and hollow. The cider house rules, posted by Wally’s family on one of the interior walls of the apple grove house, are deemed irrelevant to the migrant workers’ daily existence because the people who wrote the rules have no idea what it’s like to live in the cider house conditions. By implication, any rules of society — or those of the Bible, of which the rules seem symbolic — are deemed irrelevant to the film’s underlying message of “being of use,” which apparently overrides any other moral, ethical or Biblical mandates.