The Cider House Rules

Miramax Films | Release Date: December 10, 1999

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

75	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

Lewis Beale

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

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. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

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

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.

Lisa Schwarzbaum

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

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. Read full review

Dallas ObserverJean 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. Read full review

Richard Corliss

A small epic with subtle strengths. Read full review

Film.comPeter 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. Read full review

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. Read full review

Film.comRobert 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. Read full review

David Rooney

A touching, old-fashioned charmer that ultimately satisfies. Read full review

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. Read full review

Mr. ShowbizRichard 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.

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. Read full review

TNT RoughCutChristopher Brandon

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

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

Bob Graham

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

Desmond Ryan

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

Amy Taubin

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

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

Diana Abu-Jaber

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

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."

Mike Clark

This being Irving, the story straddles the sweet and the creepy. Read full review

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. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineSteve 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. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

Feels like the shell of a wonderful story.