| |
 THE
CIDER HOUSE RULES FOCUSES ON UNWANTED CHILDREN
The fate of unwanted children is
usually left out of debates on abortion. 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
BOARD
OF DIRECTORS TO MEET MARCH 4
The
Board of Directors of the Political Film Society will meet
at 7 p.m. on March 4 at 8481 Allenwood Road, Los Angeles,
to count final ballots to determine the best political films
of 1999. All members of the Society are invited. Refreshments
will be served.
|
|
