The Cider House Rules
An informal poll: No actual response is required, this is a mere rhetorical device, cleverly disguised as my normal witty prologue, which then segues as if by magic, into yet another moovie review.
Question One: How many times have you read a really good book and said to yourself, "Wow, I'll bet this will make a great moovie."?
Question Two: How many times have you watched a moovie made from what you remembered as a really good book and said, "Wow, that was a steaming pile of crap!"?
The answers to both questions, were I energetic enough to actually conduct such a poll, would be overwhelmingly slanted in favor of the response: "More often than you've seen your feet, Butterball!" Everyone has had a favorite book, authored by a respected writer, eviscerated by a screenwriter and/or a director in search of a neatly packaged, star quality Oscar contender. So it has been for John Irving. Witness "The Hotel New Hampshire", a witty rolling commentary about a dysfunctional, but loving New England family and their quaint hotel. The moovie? A steaming pile of crap. Sorrow couldn't float with a pontoon. See also Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany", transformed by Hollyweird into "Simon Birch", another steaming pile of crap.
You can understand my dread of impending steaming crap when I heard the news that Irving's novel, "The Cider House Rules" would be made into a moovie with Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Delroy Lindo and Erika Badu. Directed by Lasse Hallström. MPAA Rating R, for mature themes, nudity, substance abuse, sexuality and language. Run time 135 minutes.
"The Cider House Rules" is a simple story - Dr. Wilbur Larch, (Michael Caine) a strong-willed but soft-hearted ob/gyn runs a New England orphanage, St. Cloud's where he lovingly holds court over a mob of abandoned children. He will also, if asked, unapologetically terminate pregnancies (quite illegal in 1940's America). A boy born at St. Cloud's, Homer Wells, (Tobey Maguire) manages to get through childhood and adolescence at the orphanage without being adopted, comes under the tutelage of Dr. Larch, becomes a gifted doctor in his own right, but thinks the notion of abortion is abhorrent.
He decides to strike out on his own, leaves the orphanage, learns to pick apples and make cider, meets a nice girl, falls in love and decides to go back and be a doctor anyway. The End.
"The Cider House Rules" is really no more complex than that. The story weaves in and out of the lives of fairly ordinary characters faced with extraordinary choices and opportunities. It is the ordinary quality of the story that proves to be the real challenge facing the the author as screenwriter, and the director as interpreter. Lasse Hallström ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape?", "My Life As A Dog") directs this moovie as though invisible, thoroughly non-invasive. I was never really that conscious of a moovie unfolding in front of me, and it would have been a completely seamless experience, were it not for the people sitting behind me in the theater; cursed with an inability to appreciate the subtle beauties of a moovie like "The Cider House Rules". There they sit, yapping all the time, like they were Yorkshire Terriers stretched out on LazyBoys, watching Ally Freakin' McBeal, filling the quiet spaces - those scenes that envelope you with the mood and feeling of a setting or experience. SHUT UP!!!!
Sorry, the medication must be wearing off. If you can watch "The Cider House Rules" without someone yammering behind you, watch for a perfect performance by Michael Caine and a believable styling of Homer Wells by Tobey Maguire. Charlize Theron is also better than I had imagined she would be, but for me, the real test of the casting agent's prowess was Delroy Lindo as Mr. Rose, father of Rose Rose (Erika Badu), and the patriarch of the itinerant apple pickers. Lindo makes you love Mr. Rose, then lets you thoroughly hate Mr. Rose. A tough part well done. You'll see.
Point is, "The Cider House Rules" is a rarity - a moovie that remains faithful to the book's spirit, if not completely to the letter. It's soft without being too mooshy, and just to keep the guys in the audience from hanging out in the lobby and playing "Pod Racer", there's the ultimately fulfilled promise of a gratuitous full dorsal nude shot of Charlize Theron. I'm surprised that there hasn't been more of an uproar concerning the moovie's liberal stand on abortion, but even that is handled with a sense of respect and compassion, and not much preaching.
There a few snags in "The Cider House Rules", mostly in the form of several underdeveloped characters, most likely left out of the edit in the name of a more marketable running time. More's the pity. None of the main characters' presence would have been diminished if Homer's emotional
life at the orphanage had been better realized, and in fact it probably would have helped Tobey Maguire make Homer's journey into the harsh realities of the world outside St. Clouds more poignant, more meaningful.
All the same, "The Cider House Rules" is a deserving moovie. I hope it doesn't get lost in the end-of-the-year Oscar release rush, but it probably will. Go see it while you can.
We're talkin' three and a half ether-addicted cows here. And no steaming piles of crap.
Question One: How many times have you read a really good book and said to yourself, "Wow, I'll bet this will make a great moovie."?
Question Two: How many times have you watched a moovie made from what you remembered as a really good book and said, "Wow, that was a steaming pile of crap!"?
The answers to both questions, were I energetic enough to actually conduct such a poll, would be overwhelmingly slanted in favor of the response: "More often than you've seen your feet, Butterball!" Everyone has had a favorite book, authored by a respected writer, eviscerated by a screenwriter and/or a director in search of a neatly packaged, star quality Oscar contender. So it has been for John Irving. Witness "The Hotel New Hampshire", a witty rolling commentary about a dysfunctional, but loving New England family and their quaint hotel. The moovie? A steaming pile of crap. Sorrow couldn't float with a pontoon. See also Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany", transformed by Hollyweird into "Simon Birch", another steaming pile of crap.
You can understand my dread of impending steaming crap when I heard the news that Irving's novel, "The Cider House Rules" would be made into a moovie with Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Delroy Lindo and Erika Badu. Directed by Lasse Hallström. MPAA Rating R, for mature themes, nudity, substance abuse, sexuality and language. Run time 135 minutes.
"The Cider House Rules" is a simple story - Dr. Wilbur Larch, (Michael Caine) a strong-willed but soft-hearted ob/gyn runs a New England orphanage, St. Cloud's where he lovingly holds court over a mob of abandoned children. He will also, if asked, unapologetically terminate pregnancies (quite illegal in 1940's America). A boy born at St. Cloud's, Homer Wells, (Tobey Maguire) manages to get through childhood and adolescence at the orphanage without being adopted, comes under the tutelage of Dr. Larch, becomes a gifted doctor in his own right, but thinks the notion of abortion is abhorrent.
He decides to strike out on his own, leaves the orphanage, learns to pick apples and make cider, meets a nice girl, falls in love and decides to go back and be a doctor anyway. The End.
"The Cider House Rules" is really no more complex than that. The story weaves in and out of the lives of fairly ordinary characters faced with extraordinary choices and opportunities. It is the ordinary quality of the story that proves to be the real challenge facing the the author as screenwriter, and the director as interpreter. Lasse Hallström ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape?", "My Life As A Dog") directs this moovie as though invisible, thoroughly non-invasive. I was never really that conscious of a moovie unfolding in front of me, and it would have been a completely seamless experience, were it not for the people sitting behind me in the theater; cursed with an inability to appreciate the subtle beauties of a moovie like "The Cider House Rules". There they sit, yapping all the time, like they were Yorkshire Terriers stretched out on LazyBoys, watching Ally Freakin' McBeal, filling the quiet spaces - those scenes that envelope you with the mood and feeling of a setting or experience. SHUT UP!!!!
Sorry, the medication must be wearing off. If you can watch "The Cider House Rules" without someone yammering behind you, watch for a perfect performance by Michael Caine and a believable styling of Homer Wells by Tobey Maguire. Charlize Theron is also better than I had imagined she would be, but for me, the real test of the casting agent's prowess was Delroy Lindo as Mr. Rose, father of Rose Rose (Erika Badu), and the patriarch of the itinerant apple pickers. Lindo makes you love Mr. Rose, then lets you thoroughly hate Mr. Rose. A tough part well done. You'll see.
Point is, "The Cider House Rules" is a rarity - a moovie that remains faithful to the book's spirit, if not completely to the letter. It's soft without being too mooshy, and just to keep the guys in the audience from hanging out in the lobby and playing "Pod Racer", there's the ultimately fulfilled promise of a gratuitous full dorsal nude shot of Charlize Theron. I'm surprised that there hasn't been more of an uproar concerning the moovie's liberal stand on abortion, but even that is handled with a sense of respect and compassion, and not much preaching.
There a few snags in "The Cider House Rules", mostly in the form of several underdeveloped characters, most likely left out of the edit in the name of a more marketable running time. More's the pity. None of the main characters' presence would have been diminished if Homer's emotional
life at the orphanage had been better realized, and in fact it probably would have helped Tobey Maguire make Homer's journey into the harsh realities of the world outside St. Clouds more poignant, more meaningful.
All the same, "The Cider House Rules" is a deserving moovie. I hope it doesn't get lost in the end-of-the-year Oscar release rush, but it probably will. Go see it while you can.
We're talkin' three and a half ether-addicted cows here. And no steaming piles of crap.
