Touches You

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is a well done film, filled with nuance and careful character development. It shows humans with all of their foibles and how they cope. The lead actors are very good, and Michael Caine truly deserved his Oscar. The reason for the less than stellar overall rating is due to the anti-choice fanatics that obsess over the fact that women are given a choice and then give the film low marks. The anti-choice fanatics show their obsession to control lives extends well beyond another's womb, but want total control.

If I had children, I wouldn't allow them to watch this movie. Why? The entire movie is a propaganda for abortion. It only depicts pro-choice arguments. Pro-life arguments are completely left out.The most manipulative character in this movie is Doctor Wilbur who talks Homer into guilty feelings for being pro-life ("If this girl came to you few months earlier, and asked for an abortion, what would you have done? Nothing. You would have done nothing. And this happens by doing nothing" (a girl is dying after a badly performed abortion by an amateur). Besides Dr Wilbur, all pro-choice people are the good guys, whilst all pro-life people are the baddies. Homer is an exception to this rule because in the end, he changes his mind and becomes an abortionist himself.Dear author of this movie and the book. There are foster parents in this world who do love their adopted children, and who would never raise their hands against them. And there are mothers who live happily ever after with their rape-children. If Charlize Theron's character actually wanted to have some children so much, why did she abort her first child in the first place? Oh, let me guess, she was just not ready yet for being a mother.I rate this movie with 7 stars for two reasons. When I was a teenager, I didn't fully understand the message of this film. To me, it was a beautifully made movie about a boy searching for a home and a family before realising that the orphanage has always been, and always will be his true home and family. Now that I'm older, I understand the manipulative message ("abortion is not a crime, and should be legalised"). Because of its one-sided message, I think this movie is indeed a very dangerous brainwashing movie. If the author's intent was the legalisation of abortion, then well done! It's legal now in many states and countries. On behalf of thousand millions of aborted babies, THANK YOU very much!! I hope, you can sleep with all those painful screams of unwanted babies. Again, THANK YOU!

"The Cider House Rules" is a very well-crafted film. The acting is generally quite good, the music terrific and the story interesting...though also depressing as can be and a bit repellent. The story is set in two places--at a god-awful orphanage and at an orchard nearby.When the story begins, you learn from the Doctor (Michael Caine) that little Homer was adopted and returned twice...and so the Doctor has raised him himself and taught this teen to be a doctor. And so, in this world of "makin' your own rules", he has the young man deliver babies and even observe abortions...though Homer thinks abortions are wrong. Of course, you KNOW that this will come back to haunt him later...after he leaves the orphanage to inexplicably become an apple-picker. Dying kids who cannot breathe, abortions, abandoned babies, incest and murder---this film is the ultimate in awfulness. Enjoyable it clearly is not...though the film did win two Oscars. One, oddly, was for Michael Caine. While I love Caine, in this film his accent was just bizarre...yet he got the award. I assume it was like John Wayne's win for "True Grit"...not one of his best performances but given more for his body of work than anything else. I could see the film's technical merits but found it about as enjoyable as chewing on glass.

Homer is among many of the orphans in Dr. Larch's orphanage, Homer has was to be adopted twice when young but ended back in the orphanage becoming one of the oldest orphans there and Dr. Larch's favorite. Dr. Larch taught homer all medical knowledge he possessed, who becomes a skilled doctor but unlicensed. Homer wondered what life outside the orphanage would be like so when Wally and Candy visit the orphanage for an abortion Homer leaves with them and ended up working for Wally's family apple farm. Wally takes off to war leaving his girlfriend Candy and Homer at the cider house, where Homer learns a lot about love and life, in the end he returns to the orphanage to carry on Dr. Larch's work. One of the themes present in the film is, rules have different interpretations depending on the situation. In the film Homer was always against abortion, because it was the rule. But towards the end of the film he ended up performing an abortion himself. Some of the techniques which makes this film a good film includes the transitions between scenes and how the movie is shot. In this film you don't get to see jumps between scenes, they use ease you in to a scene and ease you out it using smooth transitions. A good example is the scene where Homer and Dr. Larch read letter that they wrote to one another, you can see how they switch from one scene to the other and also utilizing a montage like technique where time moves faster and they basically move you from one season to another. Cider house rules is a good film that really shows how important other aspects of the film making process are important in making the film good. The story is somewhat generic but how the story is presented is wonderful, it's simple but elegant. when you start watching the film it's a complete experience with beautiful music and dialogue, and the story feels complete, with techniques like montage they provide a lot of information in a short scene which helps connect the dots and make the film complete.