X
- 2017
- PG-13
- Lionsgate Films
- 2 h 7 m
- 2017
- PG-13
- Lionsgate Films
- 2 h 7 m
Summary A young girl comes of age in a dysfunctional family of nonconformist nomads with a mother who's an eccentric artist and an alcoholic father who would stir the children's imagination with hope as a distraction to their poverty.
Directed By: Destin Daniel Cretton
Written By: Andrew Lanham, Jeannette Walls, Destin Daniel Cretton
- 2017
- PG-13
- Lionsgate Films
- 2 h 7 m
- 2017
- PG-13
- Lionsgate Films
- 2 h 7 m
The Glass Castle
56
5.9
Where to Watch
Summary A young girl comes of age in a dysfunctional family of nonconformist nomads with a mother who's an eccentric artist and an alcoholic father who would stir the children's imagination with hope as a distraction to their poverty.
Directed By: Destin Daniel Cretton
Written By: Andrew Lanham, Jeannette Walls, Destin Daniel Cretton
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 40 Critic Reviews
56
35% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
65% Mixed
26 Reviews
26 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 40 Critic Reviews
56
35% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
65% Mixed
26 Reviews
26 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The Glass Castle is a family portrait that at its heart is a father-daughter movie, anchored by two outstanding actors.
Cretton did fictionalize parts of the story, adding dramatic embellishments and narrative tissue. But his greatest feat may have been telling the story in such a way that viewer doesn’t leave the theater going, “Oh, some of these stories are so extreme, they might be slight fictionalization.” They’re too consumed by the ride.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 76 User Ratings
5.9
59% Positive
45 Ratings
45 Ratings
21% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
20% Negative
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 76 User Ratings
5.9
59% Positive
45 Ratings
45 Ratings
21% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
20% Negative
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
This was a very touching film about extremely flawed parents. What's incredible to me is how the 4 children not only survived, but three of the four became successful and productive despite the neglect. Makes you wonder about rich parents whose children die young of a drug overdose. This story tells you that some people can overcome adversity under the most trying conditions. What helped a lot was that the parents did love their children, and that the children knew they were loved. Woody Harrelson did an excellent job of making his awful character sympathetic. The middle-aged Jeanette, Ella Anderson, was excellent with her expressions so you could feel her pain. Because of Ella, you know why the adult Jeanette, Brie Larsen, has become hardened towards her parents. I'm sure it's easier to understand this story when one identifies with the story as we did growing up in the same era.
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Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton (“Short Term 12”) can’t quite find that magical balance that Walls hits, and tilts the story too far toward sentiment.
Too much of the plot is spun with vanilla, especially tacked-on scenes of Walls’ starched careerist life in New York City with her Banker Boyfriend (Max Greenfield), presumably to engineer more screen time for the lead actress.
It’s a well-made film with strong performances, and it by no means shies away from some of the more shocking and tragic episodes from Jeannette’s upbringing. But when “The Glass Castle” reaches for late-movie moments of closure and self-revelations and forgiveness...it rings sour and false.
The Glass Castle is an unfortunately flat and messy adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ best-selling memoir about growing up with extreme poverty and with parents who both inspired and damaged her.
In Cretton’s hands, this fact-based tale of an oddball, destitute upbringing rings false. It’s based on a woman’s complicated personal recollections of her traumatic childhood, and yet it feels like a cloying, one-note Hollywood tale, the beastly trauma all tied up with a pretty bow and de-fanged.
Many movies have a "black-white"/"either white or black" narrative thread, being very clear what is good, what is bad, what you should feel, etc...
Unlike these movies, The Glass Castle manages to capture the true complexity of life, a continuous oscillation among its shades of gray, and in the end I didn't really know how to feel about the events that took place in the film.
The movie tends to seem "flat", like a song whose chorus never comes, although it is not boring at all, and the ending is worth the wait.
Woody Harrelson is the perfect actor for this role. He tends to play a similar character in several movies, a controversial character, hard to fit into current social norms, but a character that is neither bad nor good and therefore makes you like and dislike the character in the same time. It is a role that he plays and it suits him perfectly. (ex: The Drunk from The Hunger Games, The Controversial Husband from True Detective, etc.)
I am not a big fan of Brie Larson, but she did a good job in this movie.
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The original story captivates the spectator from itself, but that doesn't mean it is beautifully pulled off as it should be. The director's effort just doesn't live up to the story and that is one of the worst mistakes a filmmaker can commit.
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This is one of those rare films that I found so depressing and melodramatic that I can honestly say that I never want to watch it again, and likely never will. With that being said, the performances are a strong point to the film, with Brie Larson as compelling as ever, along with some emotionally devastating supporting turns from Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts. Overall, if you absolutely must see this, I'd strongly suggest only seeing it once for the acting only, if anything, because this one packs an emotional and depressing wallop that I found was too much for even me to handle, which is quite disappointing, considering how much of a better grip Destin Daniel Cretton had on the heavy subject matter he tackled in his previous film 'Short Term 12.'
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[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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Production Company
Lionsgate Films,
TIK Films,
Netter Productions
Release Date Aug 11, 2017
Duration 2 h 7 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline Home goes wherever we go.
Awards
Golden Camera, Germany
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Film by the Sea International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Columbus Film Critics Association
• 1 Nomination
