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Glass House
Columbia/Tri-Star // PG-13 // January 2, 2002
List Price: $27.96 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
"The Glass House" isn't awful, but another "a" word: average. The film is a moderately effective thriller, which, given the cast involved, should have been considerably better. The film's lead actress is Leelee Sobieski, who, despite many accurate comments that she looks and almost sounds exactly like Helen Hunt, has developed into an actress of remarkable beauty and fierce intelligence. Her supporting cast is made up of equally fine actors: Stellan Skarsgaard ("Good Will Hunting", "Insomnia") and Diane Lane.
The film stars Sobieski and Trevor Morgan as Ruby and Rhett Baker, who find themselves orphaned after a tragic opening. They find themselves moving in with their former next-door neighbors, the Glasses (Skarsgaard and Lane), who live in a house that's made up of mostly - you guessed it - glass. And - well, you guessed that, too, probably - these aren't the nice people they seem to be at first glance.
The film is a predictable plot (thanks to "Cape Fear" screenwriter Wesley Strick) that is suprisingly wrapped up in quite attractive packaging. The glass house is particularly beautiful and the film is shot superbly by cinematographer Alar Kivilo in widescreen, using shadows and light quite well. Christopher Young's score is creepier than many things in the movie itself. The performances aren't bad, either. Sobieski is terrific, with a lot of subtle and effective moments. Skaarsgard is quite creepy as well, but Lane really doesn't get much of a chance to do a lot.
But, how entertaining is it to be a few steps ahead of the picture at every turn? Wesley Strick's screenplay goes through all of the required cliches for the genre, but veteran TV director Daniel Stackheim ("X-Files", "ER") doesn't seem to be able to generate much tension out of the proceedings; it's not entirely his fault; the film at least proceeds with the appearance of confidence both with the visuals and the narrative, but it simply finds itself without anything much to go on from the screenplay. Too much is revealed too quickly and, although the Glasses say otherwise, there's a point where their claims against what Ruby has seen seem a bit ludicrous. There's a few too many coincidences, as well, which start to pile up in the film's second half. None of the characters are particularly well-defined by the screenplay, instead relying on the actors to take the material beyond what's on the page.
The film is dissapointing, not because several elements were weak and needed fixing - just one. The film has a fine cast, good performances and great production design and cinematography. But they're all in service of a screenplay that boasts the same elements that we've seen in several similar pictures, paraded to the audience in predictable fashion.
The DVD
VIDEO: Columbia/Tristar offers "The Glass House" on a dual-sided disc, with a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen edition on one side, with full-frame on the other side. As I mentioned in the review of the film, this is an attractive-looking picture, with strong production design and wonderful widescreen cinematography. It's generally captured well by Columbia/Tristar's enjoyable effort. Sharpness and detail are usually quite good, save for a couple of scenes now and then that seemed slightly soft.
The picture quality showed some minor flaws here and there - nothing particularly distracting, but a few noticable blemishes here and there. The print used seemed to be in solid condition, with only a couple of very slight specks on the print used - no more, no less. Another problem is some light edge enhancement, which turns up on a couple of occasions. No pixelation or other flaws were spotted.
The film's cool, crisp color palette was well-rendered on this edition of the picture. No smearing or other problems were noticed. Black level was solid, while flesh tones were accurate and natural. Not a flawless presentation, but still generally quite good.
SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The film does not use sound aside from what is necessary - often folding up to a completely dialogue-driven experience. Christopher Young's excellent score mainly sticks to the front speakers, but still manages to have a nice presence. Surrounds really were not used very much - they came on at a few points for the film's fairly consistent rain, but otherwise remained silent. Audio quality was fine, as Young's score sounded clear and crisp, while dialogue came through sounding natural. A pretty unremarkable track.
MENUS: There's little to the menus besides film-themed images and cover art, but the score does play in the background.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: The commentary included is from director Daniel Sackheim and writer Wesley Strick, who have been recorded together for this track. The two are fairly subdued, but contribute a fairly involving discussion of the film's production; working with the actors, developing the look and feel of the movie as well as story elements. There's also some chat about how some elements of the film had to be deleted to get to the more intense moments a bit quicker.
Also: A deleted scene, production notes, filmographies and trailers for "The Glass House" as well as producer Moritz's "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Both the trailers are 1.85:1/5.1.
Final Thoughts: "The Glass House" is a fairly well-acted and strongly filmed, but predictable thriller that most will be find themselves ahead of fairly quickly. The film's DVD presents the film's impressive production design and cinematography well, but doesn't have much in the way of active sound use. Supplements are fine and those interested might find the film a decent rental.
"The Glass House" isn't awful, but another "a" word: average. The film is a moderately effective thriller, which, given the cast involved, should have been considerably better. The film's lead actress is Leelee Sobieski, who, despite many accurate comments that she looks and almost sounds exactly like Helen Hunt, has developed into an actress of remarkable beauty and fierce intelligence. Her supporting cast is made up of equally fine actors: Stellan Skarsgaard ("Good Will Hunting", "Insomnia") and Diane Lane.
The film stars Sobieski and Trevor Morgan as Ruby and Rhett Baker, who find themselves orphaned after a tragic opening. They find themselves moving in with their former next-door neighbors, the Glasses (Skarsgaard and Lane), who live in a house that's made up of mostly - you guessed it - glass. And - well, you guessed that, too, probably - these aren't the nice people they seem to be at first glance.
The film is a predictable plot (thanks to "Cape Fear" screenwriter Wesley Strick) that is suprisingly wrapped up in quite attractive packaging. The glass house is particularly beautiful and the film is shot superbly by cinematographer Alar Kivilo in widescreen, using shadows and light quite well. Christopher Young's score is creepier than many things in the movie itself. The performances aren't bad, either. Sobieski is terrific, with a lot of subtle and effective moments. Skaarsgard is quite creepy as well, but Lane really doesn't get much of a chance to do a lot.
But, how entertaining is it to be a few steps ahead of the picture at every turn? Wesley Strick's screenplay goes through all of the required cliches for the genre, but veteran TV director Daniel Stackheim ("X-Files", "ER") doesn't seem to be able to generate much tension out of the proceedings; it's not entirely his fault; the film at least proceeds with the appearance of confidence both with the visuals and the narrative, but it simply finds itself without anything much to go on from the screenplay. Too much is revealed too quickly and, although the Glasses say otherwise, there's a point where their claims against what Ruby has seen seem a bit ludicrous. There's a few too many coincidences, as well, which start to pile up in the film's second half. None of the characters are particularly well-defined by the screenplay, instead relying on the actors to take the material beyond what's on the page.
The film is dissapointing, not because several elements were weak and needed fixing - just one. The film has a fine cast, good performances and great production design and cinematography. But they're all in service of a screenplay that boasts the same elements that we've seen in several similar pictures, paraded to the audience in predictable fashion.
The DVD
VIDEO: Columbia/Tristar offers "The Glass House" on a dual-sided disc, with a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen edition on one side, with full-frame on the other side. As I mentioned in the review of the film, this is an attractive-looking picture, with strong production design and wonderful widescreen cinematography. It's generally captured well by Columbia/Tristar's enjoyable effort. Sharpness and detail are usually quite good, save for a couple of scenes now and then that seemed slightly soft.
The picture quality showed some minor flaws here and there - nothing particularly distracting, but a few noticable blemishes here and there. The print used seemed to be in solid condition, with only a couple of very slight specks on the print used - no more, no less. Another problem is some light edge enhancement, which turns up on a couple of occasions. No pixelation or other flaws were spotted.
The film's cool, crisp color palette was well-rendered on this edition of the picture. No smearing or other problems were noticed. Black level was solid, while flesh tones were accurate and natural. Not a flawless presentation, but still generally quite good.
SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The film does not use sound aside from what is necessary - often folding up to a completely dialogue-driven experience. Christopher Young's excellent score mainly sticks to the front speakers, but still manages to have a nice presence. Surrounds really were not used very much - they came on at a few points for the film's fairly consistent rain, but otherwise remained silent. Audio quality was fine, as Young's score sounded clear and crisp, while dialogue came through sounding natural. A pretty unremarkable track.
MENUS: There's little to the menus besides film-themed images and cover art, but the score does play in the background.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: The commentary included is from director Daniel Sackheim and writer Wesley Strick, who have been recorded together for this track. The two are fairly subdued, but contribute a fairly involving discussion of the film's production; working with the actors, developing the look and feel of the movie as well as story elements. There's also some chat about how some elements of the film had to be deleted to get to the more intense moments a bit quicker.
Also: A deleted scene, production notes, filmographies and trailers for "The Glass House" as well as producer Moritz's "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Both the trailers are 1.85:1/5.1.
Final Thoughts: "The Glass House" is a fairly well-acted and strongly filmed, but predictable thriller that most will be find themselves ahead of fairly quickly. The film's DVD presents the film's impressive production design and cinematography well, but doesn't have much in the way of active sound use. Supplements are fine and those interested might find the film a decent rental.
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