The
fate of unwanted children is usually left out of debates on
abortion; the film is based on the novel of the same title
by John Irving. Not so in The Cider House Rules,
directed by Lasse Hallström. The film takes place in the 1940s,
beginning at an orphanage in St. Clouds, Maine, where illegitimate
children live until infertile couples arrive to find the nicest
ones to adopt (though in some cases the children return when
the adoptive parents engage in child abuse). The unmarried
women who come to the orphanage, however, do not always donate
a baby but instead seek, quite illegally, an abortion. Dr.
Wilbur Larch (played by Michael Caine) and his able assistant
Homer Wells (played by Tobey McGuire) assist the women with
the medical procedures after they have decided whether to
give birth or have an abortion. Early in the film we learn
of an abortion by an unqualified person, which seriously damages
a woman's uterus, and we view Dr. Larch healing a woman who
was butchered in such a manner. Based on the novel by John
Irving, who wrote the screenplay and personally selected some
of the actors, the film traces the life of Homer Wells. Although
Homer is twice adopted but returned to St. Clouds, he seems
content with the family of children to whom he can be a big
brother. Dr. Larch takes Homer under his wing as his medical
assistant; indeed, he becomes a fully qualified physician
albeit lacking in formal education. When Homer is called up
for the draft, Dr. Larch reveals his dependence on Homer by
falsifying his medical record to show a heart condition. One
day Candy Kendall (played by Charlize Theron) and her boyfriend
Wally Worthington (played by Paul Rudd), who is on home leave
from the Air Corps, arrive at St. Clouds so that she can have
an abortion, presumably because Candy fears that Wally might
die in the war. Suspecting that he will be Dr. Larch's successor
some day, Homer realizes that he may never experience the
rest of the world throughout the remainder of his life. When
Candy and Wally are about to depart, Homer hitches a ride
with them. Luckily, Candy's father offers him a job as an
applepicker at the Kendall's apple farm, and Homer lives in
a shack along with African American migrant workers under
the direction of Mr. Rose (played by Delrouy Lindo). Inside
the shack a paper posted on the wall announces a set of silly
rules that infuriate the workers, informing them that they
are perceived as idiots. When apple season ends, Homer assists
in lobster farming. Since Candy enjoys male companionship,
she gradually seduces Homer. When the second applepicking
season begins, Homer becomes aware that one of the African
Americans, Rose Rose (played by Erykah Badu) is pregnant;
when Candy finds out that Mr. Rose is the father, she recommends
an abortion, but Rose is fearful of going to a strange place.
Homer then saves the day by performing the abortion in the
shack with medical instruments sent by Dr. Larch as a hint
that he misses Homer at the orphanage. All along, Homer and
Dr. Larch have been exchanging letters, hoping for Homer's
return. On one occasion Dr. Larch becomes so depressed without
his youthful coworker by his side that he fabricates documents
claiming that Homer has various medical degrees in the hope
that the board controlling the orphanage will agree to hire
Homer as a replacement for the aging Dr. Larch at the facility.
In a hilarious scene, Dr. Larch badmouths Homer's credentials
before the board, knowing that they will want him all the
more. Eventually, despairing that Homer has left the orphanage
for good, Dr. Larch commits suicide. However, Wally soon returns
from war as a paraplegic. Candy decides to devote herself
to Wally, and thus bids adieu to Homer, who then returns to
the orphanage and takes up an appointment as the new physician.
At nightfall, he quotes to the family of male orphans the
phrase Dr. Larch intoned after reading a chapter from a book:
"Good night you Princes of Maine, you Kings of New England."
Unfortunately, due to a publicity blackout about the serious
political message in the film, The Cider House Rules
was not nominated for a Political Film Society award for 1999.
MH
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