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The Glass Castle
2017's The Glass Castle is a moody biographical drama that is a bit self-indulgent but worth watching due to a powerhouse performance from one of the industry's most likable actors playing an absolutely detestable character.
This film is based on a book by a writer named Jeannette Walls who we meet at the beginning of the movie going home in a cab and almost running over a homeless couple rummaging through a dumpster. Moments later we are shocked to learn that this couple are Jeannette's parents. The film than flashes back to Jeanette's extremely dysfunctional childhood with her two sisters, one brother, her mother Rose Mary (Naomi Watts) and her father, Rex (Woody Harrelson).
Rex and Rose Mary have raised their children living on the street and in abandoned buildings. We see the family move through several different homes in the course of the story and I don't think any of them had lights or electricity. Rose Mary is an impractical dreamer and aspiring artist who knows in her heart the way she's raising her children is wrong but is really afraid of Rex, an abusive, lazy, alcoholic gambler who will always make sure there's a bottle of whiskey in the house and the fact that his kids haven't eaten in three days is a non-issue.
The story eventually whittles down to the love/hate/love relationship between Rex and Jeanette which changes from scene to scene and completely defies logic because for the majority of the running time, Jeannette manages to see some good in her father that no one else does. Rex's conception of being a parent is often hard to swallow even though you can see some of the twisted logic behind it. There's a scene where Rex is trying to teach Jeannette how to swim and all he does is terrify the child. It was also disheartening watching the way Rex seemed to virtually ignore the other three children...until they try to get away from him.
Writer and director Destin Daniel Cretton's screenplay is a little long-winded and delivers Rex's dysfunction with a sledgehammer effect to the point where it is hard to understand why anyone likes this guy. Cretton's direction is dark and gloomy...the film is often poorly lit to the point where sometimes it's hard to tell what's happening, though I have to admit, that there are times we don't want to know.
The performances are the real glue that keep this depressing docudrama crackling, especially a savage and often venomous performance by Woody Harrelson as Rex, a performance that gets under the skin and scratches at the nerve. Oscar winner Brie Larson is beautifully controlled as the physically and emotionally scarred Jeannette. Naomi Watts made the most the thankless role of Rose Mary, as she always does and have to give a shout out to Max Greenfield as Jeannette's tightly wound fiancee. Despite some really unpleasant subject matter, the performances make this quite riveting, aided by the fact that it is allegedly a true story. Fans of The Prince of Tides will have a head start here.
2017's The Glass Castle is a moody biographical drama that is a bit self-indulgent but worth watching due to a powerhouse performance from one of the industry's most likable actors playing an absolutely detestable character.
This film is based on a book by a writer named Jeannette Walls who we meet at the beginning of the movie going home in a cab and almost running over a homeless couple rummaging through a dumpster. Moments later we are shocked to learn that this couple are Jeannette's parents. The film than flashes back to Jeanette's extremely dysfunctional childhood with her two sisters, one brother, her mother Rose Mary (Naomi Watts) and her father, Rex (Woody Harrelson).
Rex and Rose Mary have raised their children living on the street and in abandoned buildings. We see the family move through several different homes in the course of the story and I don't think any of them had lights or electricity. Rose Mary is an impractical dreamer and aspiring artist who knows in her heart the way she's raising her children is wrong but is really afraid of Rex, an abusive, lazy, alcoholic gambler who will always make sure there's a bottle of whiskey in the house and the fact that his kids haven't eaten in three days is a non-issue.
The story eventually whittles down to the love/hate/love relationship between Rex and Jeanette which changes from scene to scene and completely defies logic because for the majority of the running time, Jeannette manages to see some good in her father that no one else does. Rex's conception of being a parent is often hard to swallow even though you can see some of the twisted logic behind it. There's a scene where Rex is trying to teach Jeannette how to swim and all he does is terrify the child. It was also disheartening watching the way Rex seemed to virtually ignore the other three children...until they try to get away from him.
Writer and director Destin Daniel Cretton's screenplay is a little long-winded and delivers Rex's dysfunction with a sledgehammer effect to the point where it is hard to understand why anyone likes this guy. Cretton's direction is dark and gloomy...the film is often poorly lit to the point where sometimes it's hard to tell what's happening, though I have to admit, that there are times we don't want to know.
The performances are the real glue that keep this depressing docudrama crackling, especially a savage and often venomous performance by Woody Harrelson as Rex, a performance that gets under the skin and scratches at the nerve. Oscar winner Brie Larson is beautifully controlled as the physically and emotionally scarred Jeannette. Naomi Watts made the most the thankless role of Rose Mary, as she always does and have to give a shout out to Max Greenfield as Jeannette's tightly wound fiancee. Despite some really unpleasant subject matter, the performances make this quite riveting, aided by the fact that it is allegedly a true story. Fans of The Prince of Tides will have a head start here.