Written for the Association for Pre
and Perinatal Psychology Newsletter

Set in the Northeastern United States of the early 1940's, the movie, The Cider House Rules challenges viewers to examine the moral standards of expectation that society sets for people, generally, contrasted to the
private perspectives and conciliatory concessions people often ultimately make with themselves and with others in order to make their choices and their circumstances of life livable on a day to day basis.
Carrying parallel plots in the film are, first, "The Orphanage," of St. Cloud, Maine for whom Dr. Larch is administrator, doctor and father-figure all at once. The good doctor along with his two nurses, balance their vastly divergent life-roles of parent, healer and abortionist from a bottomless well of compassion offset by the unwaivering pragmatism necessary for survival for the orphanage and its precious, outcast occupants at a moments notice.
And second, the migrant share-croppers of the region, lead by their foreman, Mr. Rose. The relationships between Mr. Rose, his workers, and above all his gracefully aloof daughter, Rose Rose, enlighten the golden threads of distinction between love, loyalty, integrity, survival, and just how and where we draw the lines between them in reality.
With the panorama of pre and perinatal considerations at every turn
in this story, not a single scene is to be missed.