Cast: Diane Lane, Leelee Sobieski, Stellan Skarsgård, Bruce Dern, Trevor Morgan
Director: Daniel Sackheim
Producer: Neal H. Moritz
Screenplay: Wesley Strick
Cinematography: Alar Kivilo
Music: Christopher Young
U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures
It probably isn't entirely fair to blame the failure of a motion picture on the screenwriter. After all, that's a little too close to absolving the director from responsibility, and, as everyone knows, he is the "author" of the film. But, in the case of The Glass House, there may be some justification. While watching this awful thriller, a title popped into my mind: The Tie that Binds, a 1995 motion picture that was bad for all the same reasons. And there is a connection beyond basic lack of intelligence - Wesley Strick, the writer of The Glass House, directed The Tie that Binds. And that piece of evidence leads me to believe that director Daniel Sackheim (a veteran of the small screen) didn't have much of a chance with this project.
To be kind (and fair), The Glass House looks great, although the gloom and weather seem incongruous for the locale. With all of the rain, one might easily assume this movie was taking place in Seattle, not Malibu. Nevertheless, cinematographer Alar Kivilo makes the most of what he's given, using shadows and moving reflections of light off of water to set a creepy mood. It's too bad all of the splendid imagery is wasted on a subpar story with cardboard characters. Like far too many so-called thrillers to grace the screen in the last two decades, this one is lazy, and, to work, relies upon the audience not thinking. Brain activity is the enemy of The Glass House.
For rebellious teenager Ruby Baker (Leelee Sobieski), this is the worst of times. One night, she's sneaking out of the house at night without her parents knowing; the next night, she doesn't have any parents to sneak out on - they have died in a car crash on Mulholland Drive. She and her younger brother, Rhett (Trevor Morgan), are orphans, albeit wealthy ones. Their parents' estate agent, Begleiter (Bruce Dern), informs them that they have $4 million in investments waiting for them when they come of age. Their guardians are the Glasses, Terry (Stellan Skarsgård) and Erin (Diane Lane), a seemingly perfect couple who bring the two kids to live with them in their palatial Malibu glass mansion. But, as is easily guessed in a movie like this, neither Terry nor Erin has Ruby and Rhett's best interests at heart.
For the most part, the characters act as if they have been the victims of frontal lobotomies. I despise motion pictures that don't work unless the characters do all sorts of idiotic things. In The Glass House, the protagonists are pawns of the narrative. That might be forgivable if the plot was engrossing, but in this movie, we're always at least two steps ahead of the characters. The film has two consistent attributes: stupidity and predictability.
Stellan Skarsgård, who gave powerful performances in the drama Breaking the Waves and the thriller Insomnia, apparently decided that he was going to have fun with Terry and take him way over the top. This man's every action screams out, "Diabolical!" I kept waiting for him to hunch his shoulders and curl his lips into a snarl. Diane Lane isn't much better. In fact, the only one who plays her part straight is Leelee Sobieski, and, with everyone around her doing their best to overact, she seems like she's in a different movie. Frankly, in terms of a career movie, it would have been better if she had been in one. The Glass House isn't just cracked, it's broken.
© 2001 James Berardinelli