This visually impressive but basically tepid drama features a nearly emotionless Tobey Maguire as an orphan being trained to take over for Dr. Larch, the director of the orphanage played by Michael Caine in an Oscar-winning performance. The good doctor performs abortions on demand, and Maguire doesn't believe that this practice is right. When he meets Charlize Theron, playing one of the patients, he decides to run off and find out about the world. He moves to the apple farm owned by Theron's boyfriend's parents, and meets such interesting characters as Mr. Rose (Delroy Lindo), the head of the apple-pickers (all of them black, other than Maguire, in a statement about discriminatory employment) who is sexually assaulting his daughter Rose Rose, played by singer Erykah Badu. She gets pregnant, and Maguire concedes to perform an abortion. Meanwhile, he falls for Theron, an action which endangers her relationship with her boyfriend off at war and Maguire's happiness at the farm.

The film is not as liberal as you might think: although Caine's Dr. Larch believes that women have the right to choose whether or not to have a baby, he is presented as a drug-abuser. Meanwhile, Maguire's agreement to perform the abortion for Rose Rose is actually quite conservative: abortions are wrong except in the cases of rape or incest. The form taken by the film is familiar: men arguing about the control of women's bodies. In fact, the film attempts to have it both ways and minimize the role of abortion, which I understand is a striking change from John Irving's own novel.

I can't believe this film was nominated for Best Picture in 1999, especially considering some of the great films that were passed over, such as Being John Malkovich and Three Kings. It's really nice to look at, Caine does an excellent job, as do most of the supporting cast, it is impeccably shot... but it lacks energy, the sense of urgency that should be there, considering the story. Like director Lasse Hallstrom's follow-up, 2000's Chocolat, it is like really well-made cotton candy. It's good, but it has no staying power. It got a lot of critical acclaim because it is stately, important, and pretty, but it's not going to be remembered as a great film.