Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Cider House Rules, The
Miramax Films


7.1

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexuality, nudity, substance abuse and some violence

Starring Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Delroy Lindo, Michael Caine, Jane Alexander, and Kathy Baker

This is the story of a compassionate young man (Maguire), raised in an orphanage and trained to be a doctor by the abortionist (Caine) who runs the orphanage.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	John Irving (also novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Lasse Hallström
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 15, 2000 Video: August 15, 2000 Theatrical: December 10, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	125 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Reader David Kehr

Impeccably crafted and utterly impersonal, Lasse Hallstrom's adaptation of John Irving's novel has many of the qualities Oscar is known to appreciate.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

The Cider House Rules is about many things -- chance, passivity, free will and self-invention -- but ultimately it comes back to Larch, who emerges as a toweringly noble figure even in his weakest moments.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

To adapt it for a 130-minute movie, Irving ruthlessly cut away subplots, eliminated supporting characters and pared down the traits of the ones that remain.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Leaves out portions of John Irving's novel that would have given it more balance and perspective, but the acting by Maguire and Caine is first-rate by any standard.

New York Daily News Lewis Beale

"I write 19th-century stories; they're supposed to affect you emotionally," says Irving, explaining why Tinseltown keeps knocking at his door.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It's filled with vivid characters and action. Beneath its modesty of gesture, it's one of the year's richest, most humane films.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A deliberately old-fashioned picture that succeeds in nearly everything it tries to do.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Lasse Hallström calms Irving's typically busy 1985 best-seller with a balm of the Swedish director's typically soothing lyricism.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Many will find the subject matter disturbing, but it's clearly one of the holiday season's richest and most daring movie entries.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

That Irving adapted his novel to the screen himself and, even more, that Hallström directed it, makes Cider House a far better film than other film adaptations of Irving's work.

Variety David Rooney

A touching, old-fashioned charmer that ultimately satisfies.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The author's fantastical world of wonders and the director's tender-hearted compassion mesh into what is easily the finest film realization of an Irving novel.

Mr. Showbiz Richard T. Jameson

Hallström, a past master at cockeyed coming-of-age chronicles ("My Life as a Dog," "What's Eating Gilbert Grape"), has a near-genius for unpatronizing tolerance, and for seeing beauty in the world and nature and seasons without turning them into postcards.

TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon

This is a warm, accessible story with delightful characters and a nice metaphor about following your own rules.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

More honest than any conventional morality tale. Here there are no heroes and no real villains; the good guys are all flawed and even bad guys are sometimes capable of the noblest of acts.

Film.com Robert Horton

Part of the appeal of John Irving's writing is its sense of bounty, the way the world is offered up as a horn of plenty. The Cider House Rules movie, by contrast, feels narrowed down to small slices of experience.

Time Richard Corliss

A small epic with subtle strengths.

Film.com Peter Brunette

Always consistently watchable, but you get the feeling that in the novel --- the treacle is cut with the nasty edge that Irving's writing is capable of.

Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer

Rich in story, character, and design, The Cider House Rules is obviously a collaborative effort, but above all it is a triumph for director Hallström.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

What remains of the book's psychological underpinnings -- there are enough here to leave a permanent dent in the couch of any Freud-loving shrink

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Has that Dickensian spirit wherein simple acts of kindness can bring an audience close to tears.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

He (Irving) has been able to capture the quirky tone of the popular novel.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

It's Tobey Maguire, doing fine, subtle work, who holds it all together -- he puts a human touch to what is otherwise expertly wrought hokum.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

This adaptation of John Irving's novel--- is as paternalistic, puffed-up, and dull as a congressional debate about abortion rights.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The movie is pure pro-choice agitprop, as it tracks Homer's conversion to the cause of choice and posits the heroism of the abortionist. Pro-lifers will hate it on that point alone.

Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber

Has many affecting moments, but you may tire of the tugging on your heart strings.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Oddly, most of the elements needed for a good movie are present here, but when added together they equal less than the sum of the parts.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A major disappointment, The Cider House Rules pales by comparison with the gutsier, more full-bodied adaptation of Irving's "The World According to Garp."

USA Today Mike Clark

This being Irving, the story straddles the sweet and the creepy.

TV Guide Steve Simels

Hallstrom's leisurely adaptation of John Irving's unconventional coming-of-age novel is so well crafted and intelligent that it feels churlish to point out that it's easier to admire than actually like.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The story touches many themes, lingers with some of them, moves on and arrives at nowhere in particular. It's not a story so much as a reverie about possible stories.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Feels like the shell of a wonderful story.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a6:
A "Summer of 42" for intellectuals. Tedious in some spots, too polished in others, and upon reflection smacks of an insidious agenda glorifying situational ethics. Oh, and not one character is completely developed. Other than that, nothing majorly wrong with this film.

Hunter C. gave it a0:
I do nominate Dr. Larch as being one of the most hypocritical characters in the history of American literture and film. One minute, he is caring and compassionate towards orphan children to the point that you want to cry. The next minute, he's cursing and scolding Homer over Homer's original disapproval of abortions. Either make Dr. Larch a caring man that truly loves children, or make him an evil man that hates children. The way this story is told, Larch is hypocritical. I'm surprised that Larch didn't stop women from having abortions the way he treated the kids in the orphanage. At the same time, I'm surprised Larch didn't lock all the orphan kids in their room and start a fire to kill them all the way he killed unborn babies. I have more respect for Hitler than Dr. Larch. At least Hitler knew who he didn't like (even though it was unjust and evil). Dr. Larch is just a big hypocrite.

Yoon C. gave it a 7:
Nice movie about a young man finding himself in the world. Raised an orphan, he finds work, falls in love, and abandons his rigid ideals to accept the world with all its warts. Good, above average, but not quite memorable.

Tori D. gave it a 9:
A touching story about a guy trying to find himself. It's just a wonderful movie that was well-acted and has a lasting effect.

Michael C. gave it an 8:
Flawed, but enthrallingly beautiful and stunningly shot with some exceptional performances.

Marc D. gave it a 10:
Should have won the Oscar over "American Beauty" in my book. Beautifully-told story. Michael Caine and Tobey Maguire are phenomenal.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page

Cider House Rules, The Miramax Films

Cider House Rules, The
Miramax Films