The best part of The Cider House Rules, the 1999 film by director Lasse Hallström (An Unfinished Life, Chocolat), is the sweet, uplifting score from composer Rachel Portman. When a movie’s score is the best thing you can say about it, that’s not always a good thing. That said, some excellent movie scores help make a good movie great or a great film near perfect. Examples that come to mind include Jaws, Rocky, Sicario, Jurassic Park, The Last of the Mohicans, Drive, The Social Network, Halloween, Far and Away, The Empire Strikes Back, and Braveheart, to name a few. Each is a movie I would consider, at worst, a B+ movie. Though a lower score likely wouldn’t change my impression of any of these films, one of the first three or four things that come to mind is the score. When I think of The Cider House Rules, I immediately think of Portman’s beautiful, Oscar-nominated score. However, unlike the movies above, its great score doesn’t make it great. An A+ score probably takes this C+/B- movie up to a B.
Category Archives: Lasse Hallstrom
Chocolat (2000)
Lasse Hallstrom’s (The Cider House Rules, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) brings a fresh taste to a small, mythical French village in 1959 in his new film Chocolat. This fictitious fable delivers a gentle, kind, and uniquely original message. Its peculiar characters, everyone-knows-everyone small-town vibe, new neighbor intrigue, and sympathetic humor mix together more sweetly than the many chocolate recipes created by the film’s protagonist, Vianne (Juliette Binoche – The English Patient, Dan in Real Life).