The Cider House Rules : A Screenplay

Rating:
Summary: Rules Of Life
Review: "Entertaining and affecting" is how the San Diego Union- Tribune describes The Cider House Rules. "Irving is among the very best story tellers at work today"as described by the Philadelphia Inquirer and that is correct. A native of New Hampshire Irving depicts the scenery of Maine as if he has lived there forever. The story of a young boy falling in love over and over again will have you reading till the very end.
Homer Well, an orphan of St. Cloud's , has a irregular childhood. Since he is the child of St. Cloud's he is forced to be the "older brother". When he leaves he is forced to make a heart breaking decision between the woman he loves and his best friend. Along the way, he encounters people and place he has never see before.
Dr. Larch the "father" of Homer and physician of the orphanage, falls in love with Homer. He loves him like a son and encourages him to take over the orphanage after Larch has passed. Larch has to convince Homer and The Board to allow his to be the primary physician.
The Cider House Rules is a book for everyone. It has romance, action, and end of your seat excitement. It's a true masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Basic storyline, but not much more...
Review: At the onset, it is important for me to disclose that I have not seen the movie or read the novel--perhaps this affects my impression of the screenplay. Clearly, Irving is a gifted author, and his talent as a screenwriter is also evident in this publication. The dialogue appears real, the descriptions are vivid, and the drama of the plot forms the mental pictures that authors strive to create. That said, many aspects of the story seem to fall flat, with characters remaining rather one-dimensional and a storyline that appears disjointed. I can imagine the rich subtext these plot excursions might create in the novel, but in screenplay form, the result is a choppy progression to a predictable resolution. It would be difficult enough to address such significant social issues in a full length novel, and this adaption falls rather short in delving into the issues the characters confront. Many times, I felt myself wondering about character motivation and direction; at other times, a character would emerge that I didn't remember, again, because most characterizations were shallow. While it is clear that Irving tells a fascinating story, the screenplay adaptation failed to meet my expectations. It was a quick read that offered an intriguing basic storyline, but not much more.

Rating:
Summary: Brief
Review: I didn't read this book but I was enchanted by the movie. However I am going to buy the screenplay and devour this poverful story again. I would recommend it to everybody who is trying to relax and find another beautiful thing to do.

Rating:
Summary: Don't be so hard on this screenplay
Review: I have been reading some of the reviews of both the movie and this book, and the people who have read the novel all seem to feel that the heart is no longer in the movie. I read the novel, and it is one of my favourite books of all time, and I can safely say that what needed to be kept to keep the story beautiful was kept. True, many of the plotlines and characters are lost, notably Melony... I really missed her... but I think the biggest mistake that a person writing an adapted screenplay can make is to try to keep too much of the story in there. Books are meant to be read over long periods of time, so there are always many storylines happening at once, and many characters. But in a movie, there are two hours, three hours tops. The storyline has to be relatively simple, and the amount of characters has to be very few, or it becomes episodic and jumpy. What cutting out so much of the book allowed John Irving to do was spend more time on what he left in. He could go much more into depth with the storylines and characters that were kept. Imagine trying to jam everything that was in the novel into a two hour movie. You would end up with endless flat characters, and a bunch of even flatter storylines. Which would be a disgrace to the novel. This is not a disgrace. It takes the most important parts, the most important characters, and squeezes them into a much shorter period of time, and makes for a good movie. A great film and and a great novel do not consist of the same things.

Rating:
Summary: I'm so TORN!
Review: John Irving's 'The Cider House Rules: A Screenplay', is not only very enjoying to read, but masterfully written. It opens the heart of an old doctor, and a young boy and shows what life does to those hearts. The characters are equally enjoyable, amusing, and touching as well. It's hard to explain such a delight of a book with mere words. Read it for yourself. I highly recommend it! "Good night you princes of Maine, you kings of New England."