The Cider House Rules (DVD)

There was a bit of a Tobey MacGuire thing going on in my house at the weekend. I was left holding the babies, literally, when my two sisters decided they wanted to have a day out, and seeing as I had a rare day off, they decided that Uncle would save the day. The kids were in the bedroom lapping up Spider-man for the 800th time at a very loud and nerve-grating volume, whilst I soaked up the gentler and more adult "The Cider House Rules" in the lounge. It was purely coincidence as I had recorded the film on the sky box the week before and decided to enjoy my 90 minute long respite from my nieces on the sofa in front of the box. The film's title ...  Read the complete review

Homer Wells is an orphan, raised by Dr Wilbur Larch in the hospital in which he was born. Dr Larch treats him like his own son and teaches him the skills of his medical trade - gynaecology. By the time Homer is a young man, he has skills of the same standard as Dr Larch, although he has no formal qualifications, and refuses to carry out abortions. Homer is happy with his lot, caring for the women who come to the hospital and for the other orphans. He secretly has a desire to escape from the hospital though and one day, when a young couple who attend the hospital agree to give him a lift, he goes with them, much to Dr Larch's horror. Befriended by the young ...  Read the complete review

Directed by Lasse Hallestrom, and based on a John Irving novel, The Cider House Rules was first released in 1999. I have to admit that I knew very little about this film when I decided to rent it out yesterday. I could vaguely remember something about Michael Caine winning an Oscar for best supporting actor and I knew Tobey Maguire was in it (one of my main reasons for renting it out), but that was about it. I didn’t know anything about the story line, although a quick glance at the back of video box implied it was some kind of “coming of age” drama. But generally, it was with an open mind that I slotted it into my video recorder and sat back for a few ...  Read the complete review

Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire) has spent all of his formative years as an orphan at the St. Clouds Orphanage in Maine. Over the years, and a couple of failed adoptions, he has become like a son to the orphanage's director, Dr. Larch (Michael Caine). Larch has educated him in many medical practices which include child birth and abortion, in the hope that one day he would take over the reins of the orphanage. Unfortunately, Homer feels that he needs to experience the world outside of the orphanage, so that he can find his own destiny, as he struggles with the moral issues of the illegal but safe abortions that Dr. Larch conducts. Whilst away from the orphanage, Homer gets ...  Read the complete review

I watched "the cider house rules" for the first time the other night. I must say that my early and initial reactions to the film were "why is Michael Caine not a cockney? He sounds silly" and "surely they could have gotten someone else other than Peter Parker to play Homer?". These fairly plausible questions and thoughts were soon extinguished and deemed pedantoic when i was soon drawn into this delicately steady story of an emotionally immune orphan and his release into the world. Michael Caine is Dr Wilbur Larch who runs an orphanage but also performs safe but illegal abortions, people travel there to add a child to their life ...  Read the complete review