The plot of the film adapted from the novel is simple and even ordinary, but it wonderfully reconciles the two tones of cold and warm, and has a unique aesthetic.
It is said that Homer grew up in an orphanage, and Dr. Larch, the dean who was like a teacher, trained him to be an excellent doctor. But Homer is not keen to use his medical skills to guard the orphanage. By chance, he "escaped" out of the orphanage, and followed Lieutenant Wally and his fiancée Candy to Apple Manor, hoping to start a new life. Later, Wally went to Myanmar to join the army, and Homer and Candy grew in love during the day and night. Until the news that Wally was wounded on the front line and Dr. Larch died at the same time, Homer was caught in an inevitable choice...
The male lead is Tobey Maguire, who later played Spider-Man. I feel that his eyes, which are mixed with naivety and confusion, are very suitable for the character setting. The monotonous environment of the orphanage brought out the melancholy and deepness that he was born with. I think he's completely at ease only in a child's environment, like the doctor said, he's just a big boy. Later, when I arrived at Apple Manor, I felt that although he was friendly to others, he was out of tune with the things around him.
People get close to him because of his unworldly simplicity, but that's why he is also indifferent. Especially when I decided to leave Candy later, and scolded Arthur so harshly, it made me feel unrealistically abrupt.
Until the end of the film, before he closed the bedroom door of the boys in the orphanage, he said the warm words like Dr. Larch in the past: Goodnight, you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.
Suddenly, he felt a transparent light emanating from him when he returned here.
Kane should have won the BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for this film. Seriously, Kane is the kind of old British man I really like. Discreet humour, the sense of proportion when training Homer, the ethereal sleeping while listening to vinyl records, and the little hippie dancing around the nurse. He was calm and serious but full of affection. He made all preparations silently in the end, but he didn't ask Homer to go back to the orphanage. He only said to everyone leisurely: We still lost him.
Special mention is made of young Theron, who plays the heroine, who contributed a scene of naked back in the film. She is the kind of girl who will be liked by anyone who sees it. She is romantic but afraid of being alone. She should be every young man's dream, sexy and sunny. But it only stays in dreams, too enthusiastic blooms can only be disillusionment in the end.
The rules of the cider house, maybe every one of them is meant to be broken. Because if you don't break it, you can't really follow it with peace of mind.
Just like the rules of growth, it is also a cycle of finding and losing oneself.
I hope that everyone who has grown up can be as lucky as Homer, a partner who will remain the same as your original intention, and an old friend who hopes that you will return as a teenager.
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