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Verdict: The author adapted it, so the movie plays by his rules.

Details: Starring Michael Caine and Tobey Maguire. Directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexuality, nudity, substance abuse and violence. 2 hours, 5 minutes.

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Review: Aping the beginning of "David Copperfield" ("Whether I shall be the hero of my own life..."), John Irving's film adaptation of his lengthy, idiosyncratic novel "The Cider House Rules" starts something like this: "I had hoped to become a hero, but at St. Cloud's there was no such position. So I have been a caretaker of many and father of none. Except one."

The speaker is Dr. Wilbur Larch (a lovely performance by Michael Caine), patriarch of St. Cloud's orphanage in Maine, where, in the late 1930s and early '40s, he presides over a passel of unwanted children. Pregnant women come to St. Cloud's for help, and Dr. Larch provides it. Their choice: a delivery or an abortion (illegal at the time, thus resulting in many botched home operations performed by a desperate girl with a knitting hook).

The "exception" whom Larch refers to is Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire), "twice adopted, twice returned." So Homer grows up at St. Cloud's becoming the doctor's medical apprentice and, more importantly, his surrogate son.

In the picture's first, better half, we see how life at St. Cloud's works. How Homer respects Larch while disagreeing with him about abortion. How the orphans eye the prospective adoptive parents as eagerly as puppies in a pet shop. How Larch allows himself one unfortunate indulgence: an addiction to ether. And how he puts his charges to bed every night with a little "David Copperfield" (an ongoing motif) and the benediction, "Good night, you princes of Maine! You kings of New England!"

In the second, not-so-good half, Homer takes off with a glamorous couple who've come to use Dr. Larch's services. They're Candy (Charlize Theron, who surely must have the whitest teeth in show biz) and her pilot boyfriend, Wally. While Wally is in the service, Candy teaches Homer about picking apples, trapping lobsters and what to do at a drive-in, especially when there's no movie on the screen. Homer also becomes friendly with the migrant apple pickers, led by the ebullient Rose (Delroy Lindo), whose deceptive relationship with his daughter (singer Erykah Badu) creates a moral crisis for Homer.

To say that this is the best of the Irving movie adaptations is to damn it with faint praise. After all, consider the competition: the spirited but uneven "The World According to Garp," the unstable and ultimately hopeless "The Hotel New Hampshire" and the gooey "Simon Birch," which Irving disowned.

In this case, Irving purists will find that he has jettisoned half of his book and pared the narrative down to what he feels is important. What remains, however, is that distinctively Irving sense of cosmic tragedies colliding with comic incidents. Things don't just happen in "The Cider House Rules"; they happen. With major consequences. The lesson is that some rules matter and some don't, and growing up is often a matter of realizing the difference.

Irving is lucky in his cast — especially Caine and Lindo as the flawed father figures. He's doubly lucky in his director, Lasse Hallstrom. As he demonstrated in "My Life as a Dog" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," Hallstrom has an affinity for displaced children. This heartfelt movie suggests that we are all, in a sense, displaced children, searching for somewhere to belong and the heroism to take command of our lives.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service