The Cider House Rules Review by Tim Wick

Three out of Five Beakers

I read an article in Entertainment Weekly this morning that said the Oscar race is looking like a close one between American Beauty and The Cider House Rules. Given how strongly I feel about American Beauty, I had high hopes for this film.

I am writing this next paragraph in hopes that some member of the Academy reads this obscure little site for a science fiction fan club in Minnesota and passes my comments out to a bunch of friends because they have decided that I know more than anyone in Hollywood.

DON'T DO IT!!!!!! If you people vote for a bland, formulaic and ultimately unsatisfying film like The Cider House Rules because Miramax has spent enough money to make you all think it is an extraordinary film, you might as well stop giving out Oscars because you haven't the slightest idea what makes a film great. American Beauty is a poignant, groundbreaking film. Giving the Oscar to any other film would be the equivalent of your failure to give it to Saving Private Ryan last year or your inconceivable decision to find that Forrest Gump was better than The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction. That The Cider House Rules is even nominated defies comprehension. With brilliant films like Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, Topsy-Turvy and Three Kings staring you in the face, you chose this altogether safe film. Shame on you. American Beauty is the best of the films you have nominated. You should all realize that. Give the award to the film that deserves it.

One might infer from the above paragraph that I did not like The Cider House Rules which would be incorrect. I thought it was a decent movie. But is it not a great movie. It is not a movie people will be watching twenty years from now and commenting on how poignant and moving it is. They will be watching it asking how it ever won a Best Picture Oscar - if that is indeed what happens.

The film is a basic coming of age drama. In this case, the person who is coming of age is Homer Wells, a young man who has been raised in an orphanage as the son of the doctor who delivered him. Tobey Maguire plays Homer and I have liked Maguire since I saw him in 1998's Pleasantville. I did not like him here. His performance lacked emotional depth. Instead, he walked through the film almost in a daze. At one point, he sees the ocean for the first time in his life. Something that should inspire awe and wonder and perhaps even joy manages only to inspire detached interest. Maguire spends the entire film exhibiting detached interest, even when he his involved in a relationship with Candy Kendall (Charlize Theron), his new employers girlfriend. Theron is a stunning woman and I think I would look at her with a little more emotion than Maguire manages to rustle up.

Michael Caine, who is nominated for an Oscar as Dr. Wilbur Larch, plays Maguires "father". He is a gynecologist who helps women bring unwanted babies into the world or get rid of them if that is what they want. The film is set in the 1940's, and we are reminded often that his choice to perform abortions is illegal. I will warn you right now that if you are pro-life, you will not like this movie. It does not agree with your point of view. My point of view is different, so I had no issue with this portion of the story. The question of abortion is what fundamentally separates Larch from Wells as Wells grows up. Larch is teaching Homer how to be a gynecologist and Homer can deliver a baby as well as anyone, but he won't perform abortions. As time goes by, he longs for the world outside the orphanage walls and goes into the world.

Will Homer find out that where he really needs to be is at the orphanage? Will his relationship with Candy be able to last once her boyfriend returns from the war? Will Homer find happiness working as an apple picker in the orchard of Candy's boyfriend? If you have ever seen any bittersweet love story/coming of age drama, you can more than likely answer these questions yourself.

The scenery is beautiful and there is much to like about the film. Many of the children in the orphanage are well rounded characters and you get a real sense of pain each time they watch one of their own leave and know that they are doomed to remain. Had the film remained at the orphanage, I may well have liked it far more. I was more in tune with the lives of the children than with the live of Homer. One child, who is consistently suffering from bronchitis is a particularly compelling character. The young actor manages to pull off a well rounded character despite the fact that the script makes it clear from the first moment you lay eyes on him that he will not live to see the closing credits. Given that I had him pegged for the emotional death of the sickly child, I was rather impressed that the young actor, the director and Michael Caine still managed to make me feel something when he died. What I just wrote may seem like a spoiler, but the first time you see the child, you will realize I gave away nothing.

This whole movie has a "seen that done better somewhere else" quality to it. The coming of age aspect is better done in films like Breaking Away, the bittersweet love story is done better in films like The English Patient. This film has been made before with different actors and a different script and in most cases, I think it was made better than this.

Would I recommend you see it? Absolutely. It ought to be at the cheap theatres a week or so after the Oscars (unless it somehow manages to win) and it's certainly worth $2. The cinematography is gorgeous, so you owe it to yourself to see it in the theatre where you can really appreciate it. Perhaps I have managed to downplay it enough that you will go into it with the proper expectations. If so, I think you will enjoy it.

I may have to swear off the Oscars all together if this pretty, but overall bland film wins for Best Picture. It should not have been nominated and it certainly should not win. It breaks no new ground in filmmaking and if it wins, it only goes to show that what the Academy really appreciates is movies that play it safe. Three out of five beakers.