thibaultcaa31d

this may be my favourite john irving book. i like his deceivingly lighthearted style, and the deadpan humour he gives his characters. the cider house rules in particular seems more real than the others, the orphanage and apple orchards seem more tangible, the emotions less idiosyncratic and the characters more human. the direct issue here is abortion. the medical procedures to, the right to, the choice to...it's enough to make me want to cross my legs to prevent any traffic in or out. the less direct issue is the idea of rules. the title refers to a list of regulations posted in the cider house (where they make cider) of an apple orchard. general things like keeping the place clean, no operating heavy machinery when intoxicated, etc. it later turns out that most of the labourers can't read, rendering the rules useless. likewise, the protagonist homer welles (played by tobey maguire in the movie) has a crush on his best friend's fiancee, the director of the orphanage is pro-abortion despite its illegal status, homer's dilemma whether to follow the director's dream for him to become a obstetrician (and fellow abortionist), the town's underlying racism, homer's white son's attraction to a female labourer, all these (and more that would clearly give the game away if i were to list them) dance around societal rules that are much less clearly defined. it's all very wittily written, disguising the very disquieting, severe themes. i wonder why they decided to make a movie out of it. i'm all for seeing tobey maguire play charmingly awkward characters, but the movie falls far short of the complex web of events and relationships of the book. why bother if that's the case?

2022-11-14 18:49