Despite characters who came across as unlikeable, The Glass Castle is by no means a terrible drama, not in the least, because this engaging cast headlined by Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson, does make it watchable if nothing else.
The Glass Castle
(2017)
Genre(s): Drama
Lionsgate | PG13 – 127 min. – $39.99 | November 7, 2017
Date Published: 11/18/2017 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 3.0/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Jeannette (BRIE LARSON) had a poor but wildly adventurous childhood, raised by her free-spirited father (WOODY HARRELSON) and her mother (NAOMI WATTS), an eccentric artist. But when her father’s behavior becomes erratic, Jeannette must find the courage to live on her own terms.
Quick Hit Review: Well intentioned and finely acted, The Glass Castle is a movie that seemed to try too hard to be some sort of an awards-contender but beyond that, the film itself does feature characters who, frankly, are hard to really sympathize with or root for. Both Jeannette’s parents, as with all parents, are flawed which is fine, but the neglect they inflict from the very first moment we meet Jeanette as a child where she is boiling hot dogs, and the flame from the stove catches her shirt on fire causing severe burns on her stomach. Rightly, CPS wasn’t too keen on her parents taking her back home. So, what does the father do, with mom and siblings as accomplices? He goes into the hospital, has his son be a distraction for the staff and takes Jeannette out. The point I bring with this scene is that as an adult, Jeannette has grown up still dealing with the emotional scars especially with dealing with parents who are willfully homeless, squatting in an abandoned building, and they both attempt to guilt trip their own daughter. Here is yet another reason I couldn’t care about these characters.
Now, all of that said, I can’t really fault any of the performances. Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts both give depth to their characters and Brie Larson, as she has shown in something as dramatic as Room or even action-packed as Kong: Skull Island, is charismatic and magnetic bringing life and sympathy to Jeannette. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.0/5 |
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This release comes with a semi-glossy slip cover. Inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy and a DVD copy. The Glass Castle: Memoir to Movie (25:48; HD) – This featurette is on adapting Jeannette Walls’ novel and making it into a feature film. A Conversation with Jeannette Walls (15:24; HD) – The author discusses her memoir and progression to the big screen. Making of “Summer Storm” (3:22; HD) is a behind-the-scenes featurette on the song by Joel P West. Scoring The Glass Castle (4:06; HD) goes into West’s process into the music and the themes in the film. Deleted Scenes (9:32; HD) includes nine scenes that either were trimmed or didn’t make the cut at all. |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| Lionsgate releases The Glass Castle onto Blu-ray presented with a 1080p high-definition transfer (MPEG-4 AVC codec) and in its original theatrical 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio. For the most part, this is a great looking picture providing sharp detail throughout, well balanced colors though moving more toward natural tones and no real obvious signs of artifacts or aliasing. |
AUDIO – 4.0/5 |
| Not sure why, but this has been given a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track which seems a bit overkill considering there’s not a whole lot of depth to show off. Even so, dialogue is at least crisp and clean coming from the center channel. Seems like a waste for those additional two channels which gets minimal usage. |
OVERALL – 3.25/5 |
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Overall, despite characters who came across as unlikeable, The Glass Castle is by no means a terrible drama, not in the least, because this engaging cast headlined by Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson, does make it watchable if nothing else. The Blu-ray release offers great video, nice audio and an okay selection of bonus material. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.