Hallstrom's film could have used more dramatic muscle but is nonetheless a touching, old-fashioned charmer that ultimately satisfies.
The Cider House Rules
A story about how far we must travel to find the place where we belong.
1999 · 2h 6m · PG-13
Drama
Directed by
Lasse Hallström
Overview
Homer is an orphan who was never adopted, becoming the favorite of orphanage director Dr. Larch. Dr. Larch imparts his full medical knowledge on Homer, who becomes a skilled, albeit unlicensed, physician. But Homer yearns for a self-chosen life outside the orphanage. What will Homer learn about life and love in the cider house? What of the destiny that Dr. Larch has planned for him?
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Mr. Irving remains a disturbingly facile spinner of yarns in which the most sordid facts of life are glossed over into comfortably didactic homilies about the innate goodness of people. Yet, I was somehow moved...
[It] is a fable that turns into a 1940s New England variation on Charles Dickens. It is also one dickens of an American movie.
Deliciously satisfying.
As paternalistic, puffed-up, and dull as a congressional debate about abortion rights.
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Chocolat (2000)
Comedy · Drama · Romance · PG-13
In the winter of 1959, a single mother and her young daughter arrive in a rural French town, where they open an unusual chocolate shop that disrupts the moral fiber of the strictly Catholic townsfolk and mayor.
- Runtime
- 2h 1m
- Director
- Lasse Hallström
- Cast
- Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina











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