The Cider House Rules

Nope

Ok! Fine be that way. See if I care. I couldn't care less .

Kidding, kidding. What would you like to discuss, OP?

She would never have an affair with Tobey. He looks like K. D. Lang.

Is the movie still relevant to R v W today?

Is it a good representation? I have doubts.

Do the arguments make sense?

Did it deserve an Oscar nom?

Did the wardrobe match the time?

The music score is one of my favorites. I sometimes listen to it while in rush hour traffic. It's very soothing.

Charlize was never more beautiful, still had a gorgeous softness and glow.

That's all I remember.

It's a great movie. I can't even say the line without my voice breaking.

"Good night you princes of Maine, you kings of New England."

It presents most of the arguments around abortion, both pro and con, without making explicit judgments on any of them (although I guess it comes down on the pro side in the end.)

1. Homer won't perform abortions because they are illegal. He says as much to Dr Larch. But when faced with a case of incest, he chooses to do one.

2. Adoption is presented as an alternative. But most of the unwanted children will never be adopted.

3. Desperate women, like the girl found on the orphanage grounds who eventually dies, will seek out a way to get one even if it's unsafe and dangerous.

4. Wealthy women are able to find safe and accessible ways to get one.

5. Eliminating abortion will not stop women from having sex. Candy continues having sex with Wally (we assume) and then with Homer. It's what people do. Putting irrational rules around it will never be successful. People will ignore the rules and still do what they want to do. Just like the rules in the cider house. If someone want to sit on the roof, they will regardless of the pointless rule against it.

For me, one flaw of the movie is the focus on Homer and Candy's affair. It almost derails the story by trying to turn it into some sort of love story. But I understand why it's included to illustrate that people have sex.

Erykah Badu was great in this.

I only remember finding Tobey Maguire repulsive-looking, with his wormy wonky thin lips.

Tobey has not been that attractive ever to me.

R9 is amazing.

It was kind of hard to take the film seriously after seeing the epic theatrical version directed by Tom Hulce.

After the play, the movie was like reading a comic book.

I love the movie. The bittersweet themes about life, giving up love for obligation. The end gives me chillbumps. I love the relationship between Caine's and Maguire's characters. Like was mentioned above, the cinematography is beautiful, too.

It also has social themes centering around abortion. The rich white characters are able to get abortions easily, but not the poor black characters. It's a great movie, but half the country refuses to watch it because they believe it's a recruitment tool for liberal indoctrination.

I'LL GO LOW. I wanted to do ether with Caine and fuck Maguire. Charlize, honey, can I touch your blonde hair and kiss you on the mouth? I'm a little bit bi.

it made a point. that point being: you can't get your money back, no matter how much you beg the teens at the cash register.

It's definitely one of my favorite scores.

The exact kind of mediocre, Weinstein Oscar bait that hardly anybody remembers today.

Loved the book. Loved the movie. Like r6 loved the score. Thanks to DL just faved it on Showtime to watch

I remember watching this on DVD when I was 11 or so and being very confused but feeling very grownup. I haven't seen it since, but it always stuck with me.

Awful Cliffs Notes adaptation of John Irving’s epic, which really should be given a respectful 8 or 10 hour series in peak television. Michael Caine won the Oscar which should have gone to Jude Law, Beautiful Rachel Portman score, probably her best, lost the Oscar to The Red Violin (Gabriel Yared’s gorgeous score to Talented Mr Ripley was my personal favorite but he won for The English Patient three years earlier).

In the book Candy,Homer, and Wally live together for decades. Candy and Homer have a son named Angel.

The movie is probably recognized for being the first film to cast Charlize Theron and Paul Rudd in “serious” roles; nobody would have guessed at the time their careers would end up outlasting Tobey Maguire’s.

Don’t forget about the Jane Alexander cameo!

I'm sure I saw this movie but I can't remember anything about it.

What a year - Fight Club, Talented Mr Ripley, Magnolia, Election, A Map Of The World, American Beauty, Boys Don't Cry, Felicia's Journey, The End Of The Affair, The Sixth Sense, All About My Mother, Titus, Snow Falling On Cedars, Last Night, Girl Interrupted and The Red Violin.

I remember all of those but nothing about The Cider House Rules.

I love it. Michael Caine’s Oscar should have gone to Delroy Lindo.

Charlize Theron is very poorly cast in spite of a good performance. She looked like and was most glamorous woman in the world. It made no sense that she was stuck in rural Maine. Someone would have given her a lift to NYC and her life would have started. Tobey was too callow, and short, but similarly affecting.

R22, I always thought the stage version was better just because it was longer (nearly 8 hours). But unfortunately, it is such a big project that I doubt we will see a new production anytime soon.

O'Doyle Rules!

8 hour play?

I agree about Michael Caine not deserving a second Oscar for this, especially since he didn't do much and the other nominees were no slouches, either:

- Tom Cruise in MAGNOLIA

- Jude Law in THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY

- Michael Clarke Duncan in THE GREEN MILE

- Haley Joel Osment in THE SIXTH SENSE

The aforementioned gave great performances and either would have been more deserving over Caine, who I place at #5 of that bunch.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman should have been the 5th nominee instead of Michael Caine, for Magnolia and The Talented Mr Ripley.

A movie designed to make liberal Hollywood feel good about all the abortions they had.

I am a John Irving fan and Cider House Rules is one of his best works.

Although Irving wrote the screenplay, I felt the film missed a lot of the general atmosphere of the book.

The title alone refers to a list of rules posted in the cider house, lovingly printed every year. Best intentions are futile because the migrant workers to whom they apply can't read them. They are illiterate.

To me that is the point.

R30, yes, like Nicolas Nickleby, Angels in America, Gatz, etc.

I like John Irving books better than any of the film adaptations. A Prayer for Owen Meany and Cider House Rules are my two favorites.

I don’t have much to say about the film itself, but the score by Rachel Portman is one of the most beautiful ever composed. One of the few instrumentals that can move me to tears. Something about it is so wistful and pensive, it makes me think of my childhood, my parents and memories long ago. When I put the soundtrack on, I yearn to go back to a much happier time. Because of this - despite its beauty - I hardly ever listen to it.

It is achingly pretty R37. I too would move heaven and earth to hug my parents just one more time.

That song used to be on the "Pure Michigan" tourism commercials.

What is the actual text of the "Rules"? Can anyone give me the gist? I can't find them on google and I don't have time at the moment to read the book or watch the movie. (But I'll read it per recommendations in this thread).

Never wanted to see it as it’s by John Irving, who seems so overrated (kind of like Stephen King is.) To be fair, I’ve only read The Hotel New Hampshire and A Prayer for Owen Meany.

I did like the plot of the movie The Witches of Eastwick, so I give him credit for that. But he generally doesn’t seem to be my style.

Witches of Eastwick is John Updike, R41.

The World According to Garp is my favorite of Irving's. You might want to try that one (the book is way better than the movie, to me). I liked Garp a lot, but I've been disappointed in a lot of his later novels. I finally gave up.

I did like Cider House Rules, though.

The title always sounded cutesy to me. ,Exactly what you'd expect an Oscar-bait movie to be called.

[quote]R42 Witches of Eastwick is John Updike

Oh thank you. Sadly, he just went down even lower in my estimation : (

I agree, World According to Garp is the best of his.

Is he the author obsessed with wrestling or is that Pat Conroy?

It's him.

He was handsome when young:

I somehow saw this in theater and don't remember a thing about it except for Tobey Maguire's face and a doctor being addicted to ether.