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The Cider House Rules
Directed by	Lasse Hallström
Produced by	Richard N. Gladstein
Written by	John Irving
Starring	Tobey Maguire, Michael Caine, Charlize Theron, Paul Rudd Delroy Lindo
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	17 December 1999 (limited)
Running time	126 min.
Language	English
Budget	$24,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

The Cider House Rules is a 1999, Academy Award-nominated film, directed by Lasse Hallström, based on The Cider House Rules, a 1985 novel by John Irving.

Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire), an orphan, is the film's protagonist. He grew up in an orphanage directed by Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine). Dr. Larch is also secretly an abortionist and trains Homer in the realm of gynecology/abortions in a paternal sense.

The film continues as Homer decides to leave the orphanage with Candy Kendall (Charlize Theron) and her boyfriend Wally Worthington (Paul Rudd), a young couple who work at the Worthington family apple orchard. Wally leaves to fight in World War II. While Wally is away, Homer and Candy have an affair. Later, Wally's plane is shot down and he becomes paralyzed from the waist down. When he returns home, Candy decides that she must take care of him and not be with Homer.

Mr. Rose (Delroy Lindo) and his team are migrant workers who are employed seasonally at the orchard by the Worthingtons. Mr. Rose impregnates his own daughter Rose (Erykah Badu), and Homer, who disapproved of abortions, realizes that in Rose's case, he must perform one for her. Later, when Mr. Rose makes another amorous advance toward his daughter, she stabs him to death, and as a last request, the dying Mr. Rose asks the other workers to tell the police that his death was a suicide. Homer decides to return to the orphanage after the accidental death of Dr. Larch, and works as the new director. Homer learns at the end of the film that doctor Larch had faked Homer's medical record to keep him out of the war.

Due to time constraints, the film excludes many portions of the novel, including the characters Melony (another orphan) and Angel (Candy and Homer's secret child) who were major characters in the book. John Irving, who wrote the film's screenplay, has stated that he made this decision because he would rather have omitted subplots and characters than write an adaptation that could not really do justice to them.

• J.K. Simmons, who portrayed Candy's father Randy, and Tobey Maguire have both appeared in all three installations in the recent Spider-Man film series. Maguire has the lead role as Peter Parker and his alter ego Spider-Man, while Simmons plays J. Jonah Jameson, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle, to whom Peter sells his photographs of Spider-Man.
• John Irving makes a cameo appearance as a stationmaster.

PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexuality, nudity, substance abuse and some violence.

Many American pro-life groups[1] had the same complaints about the movie as they did about the novel in that it seemed to promote abortion as a necessary part of American society.

• Won - Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Michael Caine
• Won - Best Adapted Screenplay: John Irving
• Nominated - Best Picture: Richard N. Gladstein
• Nominated - Best Director: Lasse Hallström
• Nominated - Best Editing: Lisa Zeno Churgin
• Nominated - Best Music, Original Score: Rachel Portman
• Nominated - Best Art Direction: David Gropman and Beth A. Rubino

• The Cider House Rules (novel)
• John Irving
• Pro-Choice
• Pro-Life

• The Cider House Rules at the Internet Movie Database
• The Cider House Rules at Rotten Tomatoes