Customer Reviews

The Glass House

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

In THE GLASS HOUSE, murder runs rampant amid the scenic backdrop of Malibu. An accidental dealth leaves two children, Ruby played by Leelee Sobieski and Rhett played by Trevor Morgan, orphans. They are placed into the custody of their neighbors, Trevor and Erin Glass.

Their home has half of its structure made out of glass, a beautiful site, but one where the cold atmosphere clearly shows that life is about to change. Everything the kids do is monitored as no aspect of their lives is private. Somehow, Trevor and Erin seem to be everywhere imaginable, yet seemingly never around. Things really heat up once Ruby finds out about the skeletons in her new guardians' closet.

Although the plotline is fairly predictable, the acting is quite good, and the suspense will give you goosebumps. Leelee Sobieski is wonderful in her role, and Diane Lane and Stellan Skarsgaard play excellent adversaries. GLASS HOUSE also features cameos by Chris Noth and Rita Wilson, completing the cast quite nicely.

Overall, this is a fairly entertaining film that will definately make you flinch in your seat a couple of times. It won't dissappoint.

My three-star rating is perhaps a bit generous, but I thought it was fairer than two stars, because this movie does deliver some real suspense. Every time a young actress today starts out delightfully innocent, it seems she has to be soon corrupted (or fade into oblivion). Wasn't Leelee Sobieski wonderfully sweet and lovable in DEEP IMPACT? Her innocence survived and still shone, albeit with a put-upon edge in NEVER BEEN KISSED. Then with Leelee the seemingly obligatory squandering came with exceptional harshenss and gratuitousness. In a seemingly pointless bit part disjunct from the rest of the movie, she suffered that perverse rite of passage in EYES WIDE SHUT. Ever since then, her characters seem stuck with a definite element of sniveling brat, never wholly rendered palatable even by heavy put-upon plot elements, such as playing a terminally ill character in HERE ON EARTH, or playing a victim of a plot most sinister in the present movie. The movie title is a double entendre; Glass is both a prominent material in the title house's construction and the surname of its occupants. Mr. and Mrs. Glass are the Godparents of Ruby, Leelee's character. They become her guardians after her parents die in a car crash. Mr Glass is played by Soren Starsgaard, who, if not already in danger of becoming typecast, certainly is after this movie. What are we to make of him? Early on we see him being beaten up by some obviously unsavory characters (loan sharks as it turns out). How if at all does this begin to reveal the plot's central tension? Not in a way completely palatable to me. There may end up being overkill in some plot elements. And the finally evolving central tensions may complete eclipse and overwhelm what looked at first central, so that the earlier tension is forgotten. I wanted a bit more of things being what they seemed at the right places, with no plot twist so overwhelming as to demand that I forget a former one. But if your tastes are different and those objections matter little or none to you, then you might find this a quite satisfying thriller building up to a taut climax.

My three-star rating is, I think, a tad generous, but it seemed more fair than two, because this movie does have some real suspense. It seems that every young actress that starts out innocent these days must soon get corrupted (or fade into oblivion). Wasn't Leelee Sobieski so lovably sweet and innocent in DEEP IMPACT? Then her innocence acquired a put-upon edge in NEVER BEEN KISSED. Still good and likeable. But after that came the seemingly obligatory squandering of innocence. For Leelee that lurid rite of passage was exceptioally harsh and gratuitous, in a bit part disjunct from the rest of the movie in EYES WIDE SHUT. Ever since then her characters seem to have an inexorable element of sniveling brat, too potent to be completely eclipsed by heavy plot elements making her a put-upon character, whether playing a terminally ill girl in HERE ON EARTH or playing a victim of a plot most sinister in the present movie. The movie title is a double entendre; Glass is both a prominent material in the title house's construction and the name of it's residents. Mr. Glass is played by Soren Starsgaard, who, if not in danger of becoming typecast already, certainly is after this movie. He's a relative of Leelee's character and becoms her guardian after her parents die in a car crash. At first at least, Mr Glass seems a put-upon character. Early on we see him being beaten up by obviously unsavory characters, loan sharks as it turns out. How then do we want to see the movie develop from this point? Well, for me, not exactly as it in fact does develop. There may be overkill in some characterizations. And what looks like the developing plot tensions may end up so eclipsed and overwhelmed as to be forgotten. That's not exactly what I wanted. A little bit more of things being what they seemed in the right places would have made it more to my liking. But if your tastes are somewhat different and those objections matter little or none to you, you might find this a quite satisfying thriller as it builds up to a taut climax.

Saying a movie has too many cliches is a cliche in itself, but man, somebody arrived to the set of this movie in an oil tanker filled with cliches and spilled it all over the place. Cliches were flying out of my tv screen like sharp knives putting everyone in my family in danger. My cat found a cliche in her food dish and tried to eat it.

But then again, The Glass House was fun to watch in some ways. One being that I was able to predict exactly what was going to happen next every 2.3 minutes. We had the typical "try to quietly steal the bad guy's car keys when he's sleeping then make a little noise and the bad guy tosses and turns a bit but doesnt wake up then you finally get the car keys but he eventually wakes up anyway to chase you" scene. You know that scene? Well it happened two seperate times in this movie! Neither scene was suspenseful, and I'm suprised anyone else felt this movie was suspenseful at all when you can predict what's going to happen next in every scene.

LeeLee Sobieski shows potential as an actress, and wasn't too bad here considering the material, but she seemed very bored with the part. If got to a point where ya just want to enter the movie yourself and explain to her how to call the police, or take your clueless Nintendo playing brother and run as far away from this glass house as possible. But then the movie only would've lasted 15 minutes right?

Good. I know I'm not supposed to say anything bad about the other reviewers, but I just can't understand how anyone would think this movie was good, suspensful, or scary in the least. What the heck is wrong with you people.

2 stars because the movie looked nice.

This is a very effective and entertaining thriller. The 2 hours just fly by and there are several 'jump' scenes and I and many others were glued to their seats throughout. The cast is very, very good for this kind of film. DIANE LANE (The Perfect Storm, Judge Dredd) is very effective as the villainess, and STELLAN SKARSGAARD (who I'm not familiar with) was also very creepy. LEELEE SOBIESKI (Deep Impact, Eyes Wide Shut) also shines as the heroine. The film also has a great soundtrack and a 'blue filtered' eerie appearence. Highly recommended for those who like good entertainment and good suspense. Check it out!

After an impressive number of supporting movie roles, the lovely Leelee Sobieski takes center stage in this impressive psychological thriller, delivering a performance I found both wonderful and, most importantly, believable. While the plot may not be all that original and unpredictable, I found The Glass House to be an absorbing, suspenseful movie that never relented in its building psychological intensity. Anyone who sets out to hurt a character played by Leelee gets my full attention and disdain, but the evil husband and wife responsible for all the villainy espoused in this film do an excellent job of deserving all the disgust I felt for them.

While Miss Sobieski looks a tad older than the sweet sixteen age of her character Ruby Baker, her natural sweetness and vulnerability make her quite convincing as a normal young teenager whose life is thrown into chaos when her parents are killed in an automobile accident. Ruby and her eleven-year-old brother Rhett (Trevor Morgan) go to live with Terry and Erin Glass (played quite impressively by Stellan Skarsgard and Diane Lane), their former neighbors and designated custodians. Their new home is an impressive, unique structure with many glass walls and an ultra-modern interior design. Rhett settles in quite well, but Ruby is uncomfortable from the start. Early on, she realizes that the Glasses are not the perfect couple they purport to be. At first, she attempts to rationalize her problems, ascribing her difficulty adjusting to her new life as a natural reaction to her grief over the loss of her parents and the social dislocation she feels upon moving to a new city and attending a new school. Little things continue to happen, however, and she soon finds herself seeking help from her parents' estate lawyer. When she learns that her parents' estate adds up to four million dollars, she finally begins to suspect her guardians of having somehow played a part in her parents' deaths and to fear that she and her brother are in grave danger as long as they remain in the house.

I thought the ending played out very well. There was one important plot point which I did not expect (along with a few that I did), and the suspense that had been building up consistently throughout the movie reached its peak at just the right time. I don't find any real absurdity to the ending - slightly clichéd: yes, but absurd: no. I think Sobieski is just wonderful and quite convincing in her role of what is a pretty typical teenaged girl forced to deal with a terrifying, almost hopeless situation. The film succeeds as well as it does, in my opinion, because Lane and Skarsgard give strong performances of their own opposite Sobieski's. The end result is a suspenseful triumph that I found refreshingly thrilling and convincing.

This is an enjoyable, though predictable, thriller that seems more like a made for television movie rather than a motion picture made as a feature film release for the big screen. This is not entirely surprising, as it is directed by Daniel Sackman, a veteran television director.

The plot is fairly straightforward. Sixteen year old Ruby Baker (Leelee Sobielski) and her brother, eleven year old Rhett (Trevor Morgan)), are living the lives of normal, carefree kids with their loving parents, Grace (Rita Wilson) and David Baker (Michael O'Keefe). The world, as they know it, comes crashing down on them when their parents unexpectedly die in what appears to be a routine car accident. The family lawyer, Alvin Bergletter (Bruce Dern), informs the children that the terms of their parents' have left them wealthy and in the care and custody of former neighbors, Erin (Diane Lane) and Terry Glass (Stellan Skarsgard).

Before you know it, Ruby and Trevor are esconced in the Glass Malibu home, a huge, luxurious, all glass structure. Immediately, the viewer senses something is wrong, as, amidst all this room and spaciousness, Ruby and Trevor are forced to share a bedroom. A series of unsettling events serve to make Ruby suspicious of the motives of Erin and Terry Glass and cause her to make unwelcome inquiries into the deaths of her parents. What she discovers, however, comes as no surprise to the discerning viewer, who should have little difficulty in figuring out what is going on.

The performances, by and large, are adequate. Leelee Sobielski is somewhat wooden in her portrayal of Ruby, mistaking a deadpan expression for seriousness of purpose. Trevor Morgan is merely annoying, but this is brought about by a script that requires him to utter the word, "Sweet", everytime he is pleased with something. Their characterization of the children makes it difficult for the viewer to warm up to either of them.

Diane Lane sleepwalks through her part, which may be fitting considering her specific personal problem in the film. Stellan Skarsgard is appropriately menacing in a very controlled way. His is one of the better performances. The only odd note is that an accent of sorts seems to occassionally slip out, which is somewhat jarring. Bruce Dern is excellent as the family attorney, as is Chris Noth in the small role of the children's estranged uncle.

The DVD provides a very clear, high quality picture and sound. Other than the usual commentary and filmmaker interviews, the DVD does not offer all that much. For those who enjoy the inclusion of deleted scenes, this DVD offers exactly one such scene.

This is the kind of movie I'd expect to see on HBO some night starring Elizabeth Berkley and Lance Henrikson, not coming to a theatre near me with Leelee Sobieski and Stellen Skaarsgard. Okay, I'd trade Stellen for Lance everyday of the week and twice on Sunday, but you get the idea.

Ruby (Sobieski) is a fun-loving normal teen until her parents' untimely demise in a car accident. Along with her brother, she is sent to live with the Glasses...Glass's...Glassesses. Whatever. You can probably guess if you've seen these kinds of movies that they appear normal at first but after a while Mrs. Glass (Diane Lane) starts to look like an obsessive flake and Mr. Glass (Skaarsgard) starts to look like a leering, horny, letch. Of course, no one will believe Ruby when she tells them. You probably could guess that. The whole thing reaches its conclusion in a ludicrous car battle between Leelee and Stellan (in full Jason-you-can't-kill-him mode) and some guys that Stellan owes money to thrown in for fodder.

Let's do a post-mortem. There's nothing really wrong with The Glass House (not in a Freddie Got Fingered way). It's just kinda blah. The only reason I feel an ounce of sympathy for Ruby is because she's played by Sobieski who could bring warmth to a Hillary Clinton biography. Sorry, Hill. Stellan is good, but not as good as in Insomnia. And why put Diane Lane in this movie and give her so little to do. Jennifer Rubin could have played the exact same role just as effectively (and probably a lot cheaper).

The place where this movie really excels and separates itself from the made-for-cable stuff you see on HBO is the cinematography. The whole movie just looks amazing. The Glass's house, while luxurious, is cold and forbidding (just like the Glasses). It almost feels like they said "Hey, we have this house that looks really cool, come up with a movie for it." If you have HDTV with a 16:9 screen I could almost recommend this movie just to show it off. Almost.

Try to catch it on cable instead.

I love the actors in this movie! Hands down, you couldn't have picked a better cast. The "glass house" used in the film adds a lot of interesting mood throughout the film but what about all the rain? Does it really rain that much in Malibu? It seemed like it only rains at night strangely enough and then it's bright and sunny the next day like it never rained the night before? Hmmm. I guess I am nitpicking on this one but it simply doesn't hold one genuine candle of suspense throughout the whole film! To start off, Leelee does not even look remotely 16 years old, (she's actually 23), Diane Lane (I can't believe how she has literally never aged!) is a brilliant actress but she's left scraping for crumbs here since her talent is far wasted against Stellan's character. Unfortunately, this movie plays like an afterschool special that ABC decided to air at night-LOL. It's got the dark atmosphere, the creepy incestial sensibilities, the weird familial episodes of drug use and the odd brother sleeping with sister thing, but it just doesn't tie together well. Too many plot holes, too many scenes that don't gel together properly and not enough "realism" to keep the audience interested. Wait for video on this one folks!

The problem with titling a movie The Glass House is that it tempts critics and viewers to throw verbal stones at it. I will try to avoid that temptation, as the movie already has plenty of cracks in it.

Strong thrillers are generally those in which the events are fairly plausible -- or at least they are believable enough for you not to question them until after the movie is over. A decent one is one in which the plot is silly but so much fun you put up with it. A mediocre thriller, such as The Glass House, is marred by plot holes so big that they bug you. You can't stop thinking about them. You begin to see the characters' actions as simply responses to the script's absurd demands. The actors start looking like people just working for a paycheck.

Sixteen year old Ruby [Leelee Sobieski] and her brother, Rhett [Trevor Morgan], who is twelve, are orphaned when their parents are killed in an auto accident. Their parents' will leaves the kids well provided for, but their choice of guardians is not good. They picked Terry and Erin Glass [Stellan Skarsgaard and Diane Lane], supposedly their best friends. The couple moves Ruby and Rhett into their vast, ultramodern house in California's chic Malibu. The house is all glass, stainless steel, and cold blues, never a good sign for movie orphans. The first weird thing the Glasses do is to house the children together in the same room. Ruby immediately picks up on the strange vibes, while Rhett remains clueless throughout the movie, apparently having suffered permanent brain damage from too much Nintendo. Terry puts the moves on Ruby, while Erin, a pain management doctor, spends her time off shooting up drugs. Could they be after the kid's inheritance? Ruby tries to get help, but nobody believes her. They don't believe her either because the script tells them not to or because she frowns and mumbles all the time.

That part about having the same bedroom, which occurs early in the movie, was the first plot hole that threw me. The reason the Glasses do this is never addressed. It's not like there aren't a dozen bedrooms in the place. If the couple is plotting to do away with the kids, wouldn't having everything appear to be normal make sense? Why start off by alarming them? When Ruby goes to the family attorney, he points out that, if they are taken away from the Glasses, they will be made wards of the state. Why? Ruby and the audience find out at the start that she has an uncle in Chicago. Sure, until the funeral, he hasn't been to visit in ten years, but it's obvious he's a nice, caring guy. Best or worst of all is why the parents would entrust their children with the Glasses in the first place. They're obviously fruitcakes, good friends or not.

Sobieski, a young Helen Hunt look-a-like, is a fine actress, but she is lost in this material. The pain on her face looks as if it came from long fights with the director over her character's motivation. As the Glasses, Lane and Skarsgaard are great in their quieter moments but are laughable in the scenes where they must be over the top. Bruce Dern has a nice cameo as a sinister lawyer, as does Kathy Bates as a social worker.

The photography is first-rate and is the movie's strongest asset. The music is properly chilling. The plot's basic elements have successfully worked in other thrillers. It's too bad the writers' didn't think to watch them first.