Cider House Rules is set during WWII, and the story follows the life of Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire) who was born and raised in an orphanage in Maine. The orphanage serves as the last resort for unhappily pregnant women. The women and their offspring come under the compassionate care of Dr. Larch (Michael Caine) and two nurses. Because Homer is the oldest orphan, and because fortunes turned against his opportunity for adoption, Dr. Larch trains him in gynecology and obstetrics, and Homer becomes his aide, acting as a physician in all but name. Homer rebels against the authority of his "father", Dr. Larch, and heeds the adolescent call to find his true purpose and power in the world by leaving the sheltered life of the orphanage even though his career and his future there are guaranteed. He gets a job in an apple orchard and works with black itinerate fruit pickers who live in the Cider House.

Homer strives to live according to his convictions. As a young man, he sees the world in black and white and refuses to consider the complexity of actual human experience, something he knows little about. The test of real life begins to break down his convictions, and the first one is his expectation that adults be responsible with their sexuality so that it does not lead to unwanted pregnancies. Homer hopes this conviction will succeed in carrying the weight of his anti-abortion position, but he is incapable of resisting the first sexual temptation that comes his way. Step by step, the convictions through which he judges the world begin to give way to an open heart that learns to respect people even when they make the most dire of mistakes.

Cider House Rules abounds with well-drawn characters who have long forgotten or have never learned to live fully. Rather, they let life happen to them by giving in to circumstances. One of such characters is Candy (Charlize Theron). She is a beautiful woman whose meaning in life comes from her looks and the pleasure she gets from drawing men to her. She says often, "I am not good at being alone." Like so many women, she sits and waits and does nothing. Eventually, someone or something will make her decisions for her. She can neither fully love, nor fully let go off her lovers. She can’t even wrap her mind around what she truly wants.

No element and no character in this story is simple. We were drawn into their dilemmas, and we sympathized with their weaknesses. We recognize the difficult challenge of drawing villains in a sympathetic way. If there is a villain in Cider House Rules, it would be Mr. Rose, not because he creates major obstacles in Homer’s journey, but because his ignorance challenges Homer’s conviction. Delroy Lindo performs magnificently to allow us an inside view of the cracked psychology of a man who is brutally possessive of his daughter and at the same time protective and kind toward her and others. People are strange, complex, unavoidably flawed, and yet noble in many ways. Cider House Rules dignifies their nobility and their flaws. Ultimately, Mr. Rose pays a heavy price for his weakness by realizing and living the pain his actions have caused. In many ways, Mr. Lindo steals the show with his performance.

On many levels, this movie challenges rules and conventions as the guideposts for life without espousing "feel good" nihilism. The story makes a distinction between often meaningless posted rules and the rules of the human heart and spirit. Those who break the latter pay a heavy, though often poignant, price for acting in a way that diminishes or demolishes their personal integrity. One of the immutable rules in human nature that cannot be broken and that must be dealt with is the pain in loving a child, rearing it, raising it, and then letting it go. The character of Dr. Larch shows how difficult that is, even amongst those who espouse freedom. And Mr. Rose and his daughter play this out in a darker scenario. Possessiveness has in its nature the seeds of one’s own destruction.

The movie also broaches the subject of abortion, illegal in that day, but practiced by Dr. Larch when requested by a woman who is with unwanted child. Homer has learned to perform the procedure, and though he delivers babies and provides other medical care in the orphanage, he will not take part in abortions. Ironically, his ticket out of the orphanage comes through Candy and her boyfriend who have come for Candy’s abortion. In the final irony, Homer truly becomes a man when he faces a situation in which abortion is a humane and moral necessity. He acts accordingly, breaking his own rules and finding a deeper dignity for his transgression.

Cider House Rules has deeply affected our conversation. Craig spent part of his life as an anti-choice zealot. Even though he has changed his position, it was incredibly moving to him to see the pro-choice position developed in purely dramatic terms without preaching and without the dogma based on politics and public posturing on either side of the question. There were no speeches here, just the portrayal of an abortion as the only possible action for a man of Homer’s good heart.