Review of The Cider House Rules (1999) by Kevin D — 14 Dec 2010

The Jerry Maguire of coming of age films! And if you know me, I mean that in a bad way. This movie has way too many ideas and themes for one movie, and to boot, all of them are executed badly. I started watching this movie months ago, but never got to finish. Unfortunately, I just finished watching the second half of the film. Had I not had two Mountain Dews before watching it, I would've fallen asleep.

The movie is such a bore because noting interesting happens. A few provocative and and easy controversial topics (abortion, incest) are thrown into the movie for seemingly no reason other than to feel self-important. The acting was boring and by the numbers. The cinematography was good and the music was predictably sentimental. The story was about as melodramatic as possible. The people cast in the movie were great actors, but there was nothing they could do to make the movie interesting.

I cannot believe that this movie was nominated for Best Picture over the likes of Being John Malkovich, Magnolia, Fight Club and Three Kings. This movie tried to do way too much and it had too many unfocused themes on its mind. It did nothing right or new in terms of story or characters. I strongly do not recommend this movie.