Sat, Nov 25, 2000

: The Cider House Rules

Author: John Irving

Director: Lasse Halstrom

Interesting, well-done period film about a boy who grows up in an orphanage, leaves, and returns to serve as the orphanage doctor. Supposedly controversial because of its pro-abortion views, but I didn’t see much of that: the events in the film are too extreme to be taken as typical abortion situations. Overall, I liked the love story the best. It’s not unusual — boy leaves girl to go to war and while he’s away she has an affair — but I liked the dilemma it presented, and the main character’s innocence. Not a great film — it’s a bit too manipulative (“Oh, aren’t these poor orphans sympathetic!”) — but good.

That said, let me get on my high horse and condemn some of the heavy-handed subtle manipulation of this film. The “cider house rules” of the title turn out to be a list of some inane rules the apple pickers are supposed to follow. The point, heavily made, is to the effect of “those rules weren’t made by people who live here so we don’t have to follow them.” One could look at this as a collery of the old “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before you judge them.” Obviously, this is hinting at the abortion controversy, implying that anti-abortionists don’t “live in the house” and therefore can’t make laws for others (or if they do, abortionists don’t have to follow those laws). Quite illogical, on several fronts; in the end, the “rules” are a very poor metaphor for violating anti-abortion laws. Besides it not making sense, I just found this obvious manipulation distasteful and dangerous (Irving makes the rules so childishly dumb as to be meaningless).

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: The Grinch

Director: Ron Howard

Very good, though occasionally includes crude, inappropriate jokes (considering its audience). Makeup and special effects were awesome, and Jim Carey did a wonderful job. I liked the way they did the story: it followed the Suess one mostly, but included enough new material to be interesting.

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