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The Cider House Rules: Homer Wells
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T[H]e Cider House Rules is the story of Homer, an orphan who grows up under the guidance of an altruistic gynecologist who directs an orphanage. His altruism extends towards pregnant young women (usually out of wedlock) who seek him out to either help in the birthing process or to receive an abortion at the orphanage. While the acting is excellent and the scenery beautiful, verity is missing.
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Still, The Cider House Rules does not simply stand up and preach immorality and "women's rights." It's more complicated than that. The repercussion of wrong decisions is vividly displayed. Dr. Larch can't even sleep at night without chemical aids, and he eventually, after a lifetime of devaluing life, takes his own. Candy and Homer bear the brunt of guilt and shame for their fornication and deception when Candy's man comes back from the war, paralyzed from the waist down. Rose runs away, leaving her father to kill himself in shame.
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The Cider House Rules was well written, well acted, well photographed, and well edited. The story made sense and the characters were likable and believable. There's nothing bad to say about it, but nothing made it outstanding either.
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That it is the principle of self-determination that emerges as the highest value in the ethics of "The Cider House Rules" is indirectly emphasized by the fact that the rules pinned up in the bunkhouse are not necessarily senseless in themselves. Smoking in bed is not infrequently the cause of fires that claim innocent lives, and operating a cider press while being drunk may be dangerous as well as costly in terms of material damages. Climbing on the roof may not be good for the shingles, and falling off that height because of drunkenness may cause injuries and legal hassles. It may, in other words, not be stupidity or gratuitous authoritarianism that led to the posting of the rules in the bunkhouse. If Irving's story ... treats the rules as "outrageous" and "irrelevant," then the plausibility of the pickers' attitude can be understood only on the basis of the democratic principle that no person or group of persons should ever be required to live by rules that are not made or agreed to by themselves. Even sensible rules are not good if they are imposed on people without their considered consent.
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The Cider House Rules is lovingly directed by Lasse Hallstrom, the director of What's Eating Gilbert Grape and A Life Less Ordinary. The only real narrative is the story of Homer's life; the rest is a series of experiences that Homer lives through. ...more of this review at Haro Online
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Homer Wells