THE GLASS HOUSE is another over-plotted, overwritten and entirely overblown Hollywood thriller that goes over age-old ground without ever finding its own original standing. It's a sanitised, teen-friendly movie with a teen lead and a narrative that hints at plenty but never once approaches anything remotely dark.
The story goes that the youthful protagonist (played by the utterly cold Leelee Sobieski) and her younger brother are sent to live with some family friends after they're orphaned in a car accident. The girl soon realises that something's seriously wrong in their new home, a sinister situation embodied by an overacting Stellan Skarsgard (a guy who seems to be typecast as the bad guy in Hollywood).
That's a halfway decent premise, but THE GLASS HOUSE wastes its potential as it goes on, ending up mired in a muddled middle and uninspiring climax. You can literally work out everything that's going to happen in the first half hour, and there are no surprises or genuine shocks. There's no decent acting, either; bringing in Bruce Dern as the family lawyer doesn't do much, while Daniel Sackheim's direction is staid and uninspiring. It's best to give this one a miss.
The story goes that the youthful protagonist (played by the utterly cold Leelee Sobieski) and her younger brother are sent to live with some family friends after they're orphaned in a car accident. The girl soon realises that something's seriously wrong in their new home, a sinister situation embodied by an overacting Stellan Skarsgard (a guy who seems to be typecast as the bad guy in Hollywood).
That's a halfway decent premise, but THE GLASS HOUSE wastes its potential as it goes on, ending up mired in a muddled middle and uninspiring climax. You can literally work out everything that's going to happen in the first half hour, and there are no surprises or genuine shocks. There's no decent acting, either; bringing in Bruce Dern as the family lawyer doesn't do much, while Daniel Sackheim's direction is staid and uninspiring. It's best to give this one a miss.