The Cider House Rules. 1999. USA. Directed by Lasse Hallström. Screenplay by John Irving, based on his novel. With Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Michael Caine. 35mm courtesy ConstellationCenter Film Collection at the Academy Film Archive. 126 min.
John Irving had a real moment with The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules, cleverly if shamelessly wringing laughs and tears from his readers with richly embroidered Dickensian tales of adversity and triumph. And Michael Caine was excellent for this sort of thing, earning his second Oscar for his performance in Lasse Halström’s adaptation of Cider House. Caine plays Dr. Wilbur Larch, a 1940s wartime New England gynecologist who follows his own moral compass in administering abortions to terrified unwed girls, sheltering unwanted children, and getting high on his own supply of ether. Joining him at the folksy orphanage is a colorful cast of established and about-to-be famous actors: Tobey Maguire (as David Copperfield avatar Homer Wells), Charlize Theron, Paul Rudd, Jane Alexander, Kathy Baker, Delroy Lindo, Erykah Badu, and Kieran Culkin.