Good Acting, Lengthy and Boring Film
Rating: 4 of 10 
This movie being one of the major candidates for this year's Academy Awards, I had quite some high hopes. These hopes, however, haven't been met by the film.
'The Cider House Rules' is not a bad film, on the contrary. It just isn't a very good film either. The story has its touching moments, and also the thematic range is not at all uninteresting. The story, however, is too predictable, too simple, too weak even. In subtlety can lie great strength, as in the case of 'The Straight Story' or 'American Beauty', but here it is lost, rather appealing to kitschy moments and simple sentimentality. No great heights are reached in this movie, neither in story, nor imagery, nor music. The acting is decent, but doesn't seem to carry any great challenges anyway.
It amazes me how this little film could possibly have landed on the candidates list for best picture, while Lynch's masterpiece didn't. This is a very forgettable piece with less than a handful of moments of interest or potential, any decent made-for-tv movie could've done better.
March 22nd, 2000
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