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My rating is more of a 2.5
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𝑰'𝒎 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏' 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕.
𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝒚𝒂 𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒂 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕.
The Cider House Rules is a 1999 American drama film directed by Lasse Hallström from a screenplay by John Irving based on Irving's novel of the same name.
A young man is taught medicine by the doctor at the orphanage where he was brought up. However, when he clashes with his mentor over the issue of abortion, he leaves the home and finds work on a cider farm. There he falls in love with another man's girlfriend (Candy) but starts to re-evaluate his principles when one of the farm workers (Rose) becomes pregnant by her own father.
Published on 1985, Irving’s original source material covers a span of fifteen years and is eager to suggest that there is no experience for lived experience in the context of valuable life lessons: The largest and perhaps most compromising discrepancy given that fact that 𝑻𝑪H𝑹’s screenplay encompasses fifteen months time.
Curiously, the resolve such differences in experience should provide as an explanation for Dr. Larchs’ and Homer’s opinions regarding abortion - because not much else distinguishes one from the other, and it’s safe to assume it would lead to perceptual variance - hardly goes accounted for. To add insult to injury, exposition that would better serve this point of contention is discarded for an assemblage of dialogue that is otherwise borderline preachy. As it turns out, the establishment of St Mary’s orphanage is really secondary to Larchs’ previous time spent at Harvard Medical School as it is here that he becomes cognizant to the “problems” unwanted pregnancies impose on the women who live in Boston irrespective of their Socioeconomic status and reason for seeking a termination.
Age gap related dissimilarity aside, little else illustrated a sort-of priviness Larch is likely to have related to abortion as a procedure and the like, and this is especially odd considering such information could be disclosed during consultations no matter how informal they prove to be since these are interactions Homer might otherwise have been excluded from. It would be logical to illustrate Homer’s reasoning (Or perhaps lack thereof) and the role a “sanctity of life” has in the decisions he makes using what could otherwise be advantageous, but 𝑻𝑪H𝑹 instead presents this with an almost sanctimonious innateness instead.
Consequently, 𝑻𝑪H𝑹’s momentum is suspiciously smooth as there’s quite simply no sense of a real dilemma when Homer’s beliefs and abilities are taken at face value. Inadvertently, this turns Rose’s misfortune into a pseudo coup de grâce that reinforces a set of circumstances that work to oblige Homer more than one that changes his mind with a dutiful sincerity. Homer’s lack of resentment - or, at the very least, hesitation - goes completely off of the radar at what would be the most appropriate time, and would be better salvaged with scenarios taking place away from St. Mary’s that might present as an opportunity to substantiate his stated opposition to abortion as a whole.
Knowing that Irving write 𝑻𝑪H𝑹’s screenplay, I should be able to trust his judgment in deciding what could be cut from his novel for an adapted film; I can’t, however, as in removing interactions where nuance plays a significant role also lost is this implied sense that good people are capable of doing bad things and vice versa. This applies not only to an occupational related necessity that Homer is capable of providing, but also to what transpires between him and Candy in the original material that has a more permeating consequence. I won’t spoil, but said consequences can be tied to Homer’s relationship as an orphan while also being contrary to how Candy is first introduced as a character, and to say it isn’t utilized appropriately would be the understatement of the year.
Removing the sense of urgency as alluded to earlier from its equation, there are a number of conflicting details that do make for good talking points in spite of how little they go addressed explicitly in 𝑻𝑪H𝑹. Ultimately, what puts Dr. Larch and Homer at odds with one another is more than their guiding principles, and the gravity of them really shouldn’t go unmentioned. If one chooses to perceiving 𝑻𝑪H𝑹 as a coming-to-age narrative it comes to be expected that Homer might want to leave his previously sheltered upbringing to find his purpose in life if nothing else of the more tangible persuasion: I mean, he’s never even seen a lobster in real life up the point of his initial meeting with Candy, and St. Cloud has secondarily barred him from a true taste of “freedom” though not intentional by any means. Homer’s choice to leave arguably jeopardizes Dr. Larchs’ legacy, but a refusal to honor this would be subsequently hypocritical even if his absence might contribute to harmful conditions in the long run.
On that note, there is certainly a strand of advocacy coursing through 𝑻𝑪H𝑹’s veins, but its objectives are buried under known-to-be obstacles that aren’t quite as fleshed out as they ought to be even if just for dramatic discourse or a hint of empathy for the patients served by Dr. Larch and Homer. The latter’s comments regarding the legality of abortion are barely more than a sentence long, and the repercussions of helping people even acquire an abortion are sorely underplayed. This is even more upsetting - infuriating, even - with the knowledge that people in the demographic Rose represents in real life would likely have no choice but to carry a pregnancy to term as the accessibility to abortion as a procedure has never worked in the favor of people from marginalized communities, nevermind people that can empathize with the abusive dynamic that Homer obtains knowledge of and aggressively addresses quite literally immediately thereafter. .
The irony here is in how much of Homer’s relocating is really a testament to exploitive affairs that are cyclic in nature and his social privilege as a Caucasian man from the 1940s. I don’t think anyone would go so far as to suggest his experience as an orphan was easy being an “unwanted child” and all, but this idea of being confined to one place extends thoroughly to Rose and her coworkers. Effectively, the group of migrant workers Homer comes to be acquainted with at the cider farm are a reflection of constraining parameters albeit in a completely different way. Being denied an education (As such workers often were) to the point of being illiterate presents significant challenges and limits the opportunities that Rose and her company could hypothetically seek out in the future: And this might be different kind of stuck, but it qualifies as such nonetheless. This juxtaposition of these environments is a key element that should be mulled over a bit, and especially so in incidents less directly related to healthcare where symptomatic barriers regularly present themselves.
At the end of the day, it’s really quite maddening that one can only be so disappointed with a story so obviously concerned with reproductive rights, but I’ll go on openly resenting how much others settle for what 𝑻𝑪H𝑹 has to offer. This isn’t a completely catastrophic failure by any means as Maguire and Cain give the most charismatic performances they possibly can, but it does relish a bit through a non-sequitur of a playing field. For a movie so dependent on controversy to drive any of its points home it incorporates little aura of risk or sensitivity to those most affected by regulations that turn a conceptual moment into a life or death sentence. For a story that cares so much about compliance and lack thereof when warranted, one would think the capacity in which its characters can read (Or much less understand) the rules they are expected to abide by would be a more constant variable: because they are not I am afraid that the critical acclaim and praise 𝑻𝑪H𝑹 has received is no more than a celebration of bare minimum antics, and its attempts at allyship are mind-numbingly dependent on inherent value.
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