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PB) BB = e REVIEWS by Carole TenBrink THE CIDER HOUSE RULES If you haven't seen it at the theatres this film is worth renting. Mind you, I had a devil of a time deciding how to rate it. Right afterward, while pushing rewind, I felt complete, satisfied by a good story. By morning my head was buzzing with complaint, and by now, later in the day, I'd rate it as moderately interesting. Say, 3 stars out of 5. This film won two academy awards, (Supporting actor, Michael Caine, and Adapted screenplay) and it fits into the current Hollywood mold; these things make one wonder if it's all hoop la. On the other hand, John Irving, who wrote the novel from which the story came, also wrote this film script. He went through 4 directors, thus waiting 13 years, before settling on director, Lasse Hall- strom (who did 'My life as a Dog' & "What's Eating Gilbert Grape') to do this project. So, Irving must have thought he finally had found the right match. There is one nifty thing you should know before watching this film. John Irving makes a cameo appearance near the very end of the film, as a station master. I wish I'd known that ahead of time. The portrayal of St. Clouds orphanage in this film warms one's heart. After all the stories in the-news in re- cent years, it's refreshing to see the strong foundation and depth of affection these children receive from Dr. Wilber Larch. The movie becomes a coming of age story about Homer Wells, one of the orphans who Dr. Larch feels has great promise. This brings me to two major strengths of the film, the poignant sense of setting and the sublime acting. Michael Caine gives us one of his finest performances as Dr. Larch, who loves the orphans and has the courage to provide women of the early 1900's with abortions even though they're illegal. These traits, along with his weak- nesses, keep deepening our understanding of this com- plex character right up to the very end of the story. Toby Maguire also achieves rich character develop- ment in his rendering of Homer Wells, an orphan who Dr. Larch especially fathers and trains in medical proce- dures. 1 loved Homer's dead pan manner. Maguire filled him with such matter-of-fact maturity at one moment, (as when delivering a baby) and such naive innocence in another, (for example, when telling Candy, who he's falling in love with, that he's never eaten lobster, or seen the sea, and has only seen one movie is his life). The moral terrain of this film is fascinating. In the context of Homer's coming of age, issues of abortion and incest are grappled with, but the most gripping focus is moral ambiguity, how life forces these characters and us into murky grey areas where sometimes one must break major social rules to set things right. This brings me to one of the films major weak- Continued on page 8 Your Parents Are Mean? - Continued from page 5 chosen. They had to wait, pretending insouciance, while the boys sorted out the more "attractive" partners. Finally, some geek would shamble down the line and reluctantly ask for a dance. Neither partner wanted to dance. Neither partner wanted to be there. Both partners had been overcome by the dreams of their parents who thought them intelligent and "cute". What a life a kid has. This was sixth grade, remember, and girls were not an attraction. Today, the way I hear it, boys in the sixth grade have dated, made marriage plans, and some are raising their second child. I do not envy this social advance. All things considered, Mrs. Payson's Dancing School is a desirable alternative to maturing too early. -George Underhill