I enjoyed The Cider House Rules. Compared to The World According to Garp or Simon Birch, it's not as quirky as many other movies based on John Irving books. Tobey Maguire plays one of his quiet observer roles again; but he's someone who just wants to keep things calm. Michael Caine gives a nice performance as the pragmatic doctor but his accent is so flat it's like a newscaster's.
I happened to see Cider House and Simon Birch on the same day and Cider House did a much better job at portraying a very particular time and place.
I liked Delroy Lindo's performance very much also. He has a very thankless role (and wasn't nominated for anything at Oscar time but probably should have), but was particularly good. A few reviewers have complained about the way his character was written, but I have to disagree. There are millions of people out there like Delroy Lindo who are intelligent, "normal" people to most but are monsters in their private lives.
I happened to see Cider House and Simon Birch on the same day and Cider House did a much better job at portraying a very particular time and place.
I liked Delroy Lindo's performance very much also. He has a very thankless role (and wasn't nominated for anything at Oscar time but probably should have), but was particularly good. A few reviewers have complained about the way his character was written, but I have to disagree. There are millions of people out there like Delroy Lindo who are intelligent, "normal" people to most but are monsters in their private lives.