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.