(rated PG, 131 mins.) Released (Oscar consideration) Based on John Irving’s novel, The Cider House Rules tells the story of Wilbur Larch, an emotionally repressed physician and part-time abortionist who heads a New England orphanage, and his relationship with one of his charges, Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire) to whom he becomes a father figure and mentor. Michael Caine (nominated for best supporting actor) delivers Homer into the world as a baby, in hopes of finding him a home. After two shots at adoption, and being returned to the orphanage, Homer becomes the child (and makeshift physician in training) to Dr. Larch. At the orphanage, Larch teaches Homer everything about being a doctor and nothing about right and wrong. Homer, meanwhile, yearns for the one thing Larch can’t give him – rules to live by. One day, Charlize Theron arrives for “the procedure” and everything changes. Soon after, Homer leaves the orphanage, only to fall hopelessly in love and come to the realization that his future is inescapably connected to his past. The story is a soft gentle world inside a real world. A sensitive sweet-moving look at life inside an orphanage as they hunger to glimpse through their bubble world at what really happens beyond their home on a hill in Maine. The actors provide stunning performances in a movie that focuses on small quality issues of the heart, rather than the big picture. This story handles “pro choice” and some other unexpected issues with eloquence and delicately.