_The_Glass_House_ (PG-13) ** (out of ****)
Even if the trailer didn't give away darn near every turn of its plot, one would still have had an easy time predicting the course of events in _The_Glass_House_. A formulaic film that is more typical than terrible, _The_Glass_House_ still makes for frustrating viewing, given the level of talent involved.
Topping that list is Leelee Sobieski, whose natural poise lends the preposterous proceedings a certain level of credibility. Her Ruby Baker is introduced as a rebellious high schooler, but she quickly becomes more well-behaved when her and her younger brother Rhett's (Trevor Morgan) parents are killed in a mysterious auto accident. Ruby and Rhett are then put in the care of wealthy family friends Terry (Stellan Skarsgård) and Erin (Diane Lane) Glass, who not only live in a large hilltop home made of (yes) glass, one of their cars has the license plate "24KGLSS." With all the heavy-handed symbolism, could it be possible that this newly formed household could be in danger of being shattered by a stone?
But of course, and after Ruby rather conveniently happens upon some suspicious conversations involving Terry, she finds out that her new guardians don't have the most crystal clear of intentions. Director Daniel Sackheim, who cut his helming teeth on numerous episodes of _The_X-Files_, somehow manages to generate an air of suspense even if he sometimes too easily falls in the trap of dropping shady "hints" with all the subtlety and grace of a trowel. Ultimately, Sackheim and his able cast cannot overcome the increasingly overdone twists of Wesley Strick's script (based on his output since, one wonders just how much of the gripping 1991 _Cape_Fear_ remake was his doing and not director Martin Scorsese's). Did an unexceptional, unsurprising thriller need to morph into another one of those films with a villain that just won't die?
Then again, that's just another example of how by-the-numbers and off-the-rack _The_Glass_House_ is. Sobieski does intermittently rise above the occasion, doing what she can with the film's only halfway-realistic role; some usually reliable co-stars fare less well: Skarsgård gives in to the histrionics of the script too easily while Lane is stymied by a role that's a nonentity on the page. Perhaps Lane's part is most reflective of the whole of the film: neither here nor there, and easily forgotten.
©2001 Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina twotrey@juno.com | jordan_host@sportsmail.com | mrbrown@iname.com The Movie Report/Mr. Brown's Movie Site: www.mrbrownmovies.com www.filmthreat.com | www.cinemareview.com | www.digitalwidescreen.com on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL Instant Messenger: MrBrown23
========== X-RAMR-ID: 29765 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 254061 X-RT-TitleID: 1109671 X-RT-SourceID: 636 X-RT-AuthorID: 1202 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews