Adapting books to the big screen is a challenge. Adapting John Irving's novels, which often span entire lifetimes, can seem impossible. Many films have attempted adapting Irving's work to varying levels of success. The World According to Garp snagged two Oscar nominations for John Lithgow and Glenn Close, while Simon Birch strayed so far from the original book A Prayer for Owen Meany that the credits read “Inspired by the novel” as opposed to “Based on the novel.” The Cider House Rules is the most faithful adaptation of Irving's work because of Irving's direct role in adapting the screenplay. It also manages to be the best film based on his work because Irving and director Lasse Hallstrom understood what works for novels and what works for films. They do not sacrifice what makes a film work as a medium in order to accommodate everything that people love about the book, and The Cider House Rules is better for it.
The Cider House Rules follows the life of Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire), an orphan who has bad luck with adoptive parents. The head of the orphanage Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine) takes Homer under his wing as an apprentice. Dr. Larch teaches Homer everything he knows about practicing medicine including how to perform an abortion, but Homer is against the procedure. It becomes increasingly clear that Dr. Larch wants Homer to take over as the head of the orphanage, and Homer is unsure if this is what he wants. When Candy Kendall (Charlize Theron) and her boyfriend Wally Worthington (Paul Rudd) come to Dr. Larch for an abortion, Homer packs his bags and leaves for the Maine coastline with them. Homer gets a job at the Worthington's apple orchard, and he expects life to be simpler working in the cider house than in the orphanage. He discovers that life is complicated all over, and he starts questioning the rules and morals he has lived by all his life when he falls in love with Candy.
Fans of the book will be disappointed that so much of the story has been cut or changed, but I think that many of them will see that the changes were necessary. I have read The Cider House Rules, and the story as it is told is incompatible with film. A mini-series like The Pillars of the Earth or Anne of Green Gables might have worked, but there is no way that the entire story could be told in a feature-length film. Instead of trying to recreate everything that happened in the book and covering all the themes that the book encompassed, Irving took Homer's smaller coming-of-age story and focused his attention on that.
What I think won over even the pickiest of Irving fans was the film's casting. Tobey Maguire plays Homer as an old soul in a young man. He survived abusive adoptive parents, and now as Dr. Larch's apprentice, he has the moral dilemma of protecting the life of an unborn child vs. protecting the lives of these women who will otherwise seek out “help” from butchers and con artists posing as doctors. Charlize Theron and Paul Rudd also put in fine performances, but the movie would not be the same without Michael Caine as Dr. Larch. Abortion has always been a hot-button issue, particularly from the religious community, and it is a bit of a shock when Dr. Larch refers to abortion as God's work. He is proud of his work both with the orphan boys and the young women who come to him for help. I cannot think of any actor other than Michael Caine who could have played that character without completely alienating that conservative segment of the American film audience.
Though the issue of abortion is central to the story, I don't want people to mistake The Cider House Rules as being a heavy-handed “message movie.” This is still a coming-of-age story where a young man is forced to rethink his view of the world and morality. It just so happens that the issue of abortion is the catalyst. Because there are prominent pro-choice characters, there are people who won't give The Cider House Rules a chance, but if you like good stories, complex characters, and morality with shades of grey, then you owe it to yourself to check it out on Blu-ray.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Special features include a featurette on John Irving's role in the film, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Cider House Rules, deleted scenes, the theatrical trailer, and an audio commentary with Lasse Hallstrom, John Irving, and the film's producer Richard N. Gladstein.
"The Cider House Rules" is on sale October 4, 2011 and is rated PG13. Drama. Directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Written by John Irving. Starring Charlize Theron, Michael Caine, Paul Rudd, Tobey Maguire, Delroy Lindo.
