After her parents die in a post-wedding anniversary car crash, Ruby Baker (Sobieski) realizes her extended family is not very tight, leaving her and her younger brother without anyone to really turn to for support. Fortunately their parents had elected their old next door neighbours, the Glasses, as guardians and so they move out to Malibu to their new home, a beautiful, modern house made, appropriately enough, from an unusually large amount of glass. Having no children of their own, the Glasses are happy to have the children in their care, although they are not particularly sure about parenting methods, especially of a recently traumatized teenage girl.
Unfortunately it quickly becomes apparent that both the Glasses� finances and marital bliss are far from perfect and Sobieski becomes suspicious that their motives for being so welcoming were not entirely honourable, bearing in mind the size of the children�s trust fund.
While never being a really gripping suspense, The Glass House avoids falling into bad clich� and has several earnest performances too. Sobieski is a strong lead, imbuing her teen-in-peril with the kind of attitude and strength that Jodie Foster brought to Panic Room. In fact, there are a lot of similarities between the two, with most of the action being confined to the house and her having to protect her younger brother. Actually, the only difference seems to be the direction not living up to that of Fincher, which I think you�ll agree is not something to be too ashamed of. |
