A Matter of Choice
FILM: The Cider House Rules
DIRECTOR: Lasse Hallstrom
STARRING: Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron
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HOMER (TOBEY MAGUIRE) SETS HIS SIGHTS ON HIS FRIEND'S GIRLFRIEND, CANDY (CHARLIZE THERON), IN LASSE HALLSTROM'S THE CIDER HOUSE RULES.
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When John Irving's acclaimed novel The Cider House Rules was published
in 1985, it was hailed in some quarters as one of the most even-handed
approaches ever taken to the controversial issue of abortion. I doubt that many
right-to-life proponents found it so, but it is true that the obviously
pro-choice Irving anticipated Bill Clinton's later appeal for abortions to be
legal, safe and rare. Irving takes the business of life seriously and endorses
abortion only as a radical measure to save the physical or psychological
well-being of the mother. That point was crystal clear in Irving's book, but in
Lasse Hallstrom's motion picture, it seems less so. Indeed, the whole film
seems less a rumination on one of the thorniest social issues of our time than
it does a whimsical coming-of-age story.
With Irving handling the script himself (for the first time), it
would seem apparent that abortion perhaps never was as central to the author as
it was to the critics. Here, he has preserved the World War II-era story of
Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire), a bright and sensitive young man who is born in a
Maine orphanage. He is raised as the surrogate son of Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael
Caine), the home's administrator and obstetrician for the unwed mothers who
give birth there. As Homer grows into his teens and the aging Dr. Larch's
energy begins to flag, the older man trains the boy to assist him. By the time
Homer is 20, he is a skilled physician -- though, of course, he hasn't attended
medical or even high school. What Dr. Larch wants more than anything is for
Homer to replace him at the orphanage, and, to that end, the old man skillfully
falsifies Homer a set of medical credentials. Homer, however, wants to see the
world, and one fall day leaves the orphanage in the company of Wally
Worthington (Paul Rudd) and his girlfriend, Candy Kendall (Charlize Theron). In
a seacoast town some hours away, Wally hires Homer to work in his family's
apple orchard, where Homer's endeavors are supervised by the stern, itinerant
labor foreman, Mr. Rose (Delroy Lindo). Soon thereafter, Wally is off to war
and Homer is left to face the complications of growing up without either father
or brother figure at hand.
John Irving's work has been extensively about the flawed nature of
the human character, and that concern is on ample display here. Seen from one
angle, Wilbur Larch is a profoundly respectable man: dedicated, hard-working,
loving, decent and self-sacrificing. But seen from another angle, Larch is a
criminal abortionist and a drug addict. He's long been in the habit of taking
refuge from the woes of the world by huffing the same ether with which he
anesthetizes his patients. No one escapes the shadow of the dark side. Homer's
desire to broaden his realm of experience strays close to the sin of
ingratitude; his longing for Candy, understandable enough given her great
beauty, nonetheless constitutes a betrayal of Wally. And so it goes, each
character surrendering to temptation as often as rising above it. How do we
deal with such iniquity? However regretfully, we expect it, and then we
accept it and strive to forgive it. We try to learn from our mistakes and
thereby strive not to repeat them.
The richness of Irving's characters as developed in the hundreds of
pages of his novel makes this story work rather better in print than it does on
film. Only Homer, Candy and Dr. Larch receive satisfactory development here.
And the lessons Homer learns in the apple orchard of the novel seem weightier
than those depicted on celluloid. In the book, Homer's ultimate choice arrives
as a revelation; here, it seems preordained. In short, because my regard for
the novel is so great, the film emerges as a tad disappointing. Hallstrom keeps
things too quiet, emotions too muted, implications for human lives too
confined. Nonetheless, I recommend the film. And I particularly commend the
work of Michael Caine, who contributes a performance as fine as any in his
long, distinguished career.
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