"Family Values Survive Tragedy and Evil"
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What You Need To Know:
Ruby is a rude, rebellious teen, and Rhett is an annoying video game addict. This hinders the audience’s sympathy toward the children in the first half of the movie. THE GLASS HOUSE effectively builds sinister tension, however, as Ruby learns more about her new guardians. Ruby finally gains sympathy as the details of her plight are revealed. This movie teaches that family survives tragedy and evil, but it contains darker elements not recommended for children and younger teenagers
Content:
(BB, C, LL, VVV, S, N, AA, DD, MM) Moral worldview stressing the importance & value of family, with troubled children eventually finding a redeemed, reconciled family life & a funeral service set in a Christian church with a minister quoting the Bible; about 13 obscenities & 4 profanities; strong violence & threats of violence involving children, including car wrecks, images of bloody corpses in traffic accidents, gangsters stab man to death, woman overdoses on morphine, man threatens 16-year-old & 11 year-old, man grabs children by the hair & locks them in basement, policeman knocked out, implied cutting of car’s brakes to murder people, hitting people with objects, gangsters tape man’s mouth shut, people break glass, car runs over one villain, & married couple drugs 16-year-old girl to keep her quiet; no sex but possible voyeurism & older married man stares too long at 16-year-old girl in bikini & seems to have lustful desires toward girl in one sequence; partial male nudity, women in underwear, bikinis or nightgowns, & bare female back; alcohol use & drunkenness; smoking, teenage smoking & married woman is a morphine addict; and, teenage rebellion, stealing, teenage sister treats her younger brother very rudely but eventually realizes the importance & value of family, financial malfeasance, embezzlement, deceit, reckless driving, plagiarism, & loan sharking.
More Detail:
It’s not always comfortable watching the new thriller THE GLASS HOUSE. Throughout the story, for example, a guardian threatens the lives and welfare of two orphaned children. Also, one of the children, a 16-year-old heroine played by Leelee Sobieski, is not a very nice person, which nearly destroys the audience’s sympathy for her predicament. Furthermore, her 11-year-old brother is a typical pagan boy who’s more concerned with playing video games than he is with having a positive, enriching relationship with the people around him. Despite all of these problems, the movie manages to retain viewers’ interest, especially when the teenage girl finally realizes that it’s up to her if she or her brother survive. The bad people eventually get their comeuppance. Best of all, the heroine finally learns the value and importance of family. To quote Shakespeare, all’s well that ends well.
In the story, Leelee Sobieski (JOY RIDE) plays Ruby, a rebellious 16-year-old living in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. A terrible car accident leaves Ruby and her 11-year-old brother, Rhett, orphaned. The parents leave the children to two family friends in Malibu, Erin and Terry Glass, because the mother’s estranged brother is their nearest living relative, but he lives in Chicago. Ruby rebuffs Uncle Jack’s efforts to reconcile, but she finds that everything’s not right in the Glass house. In fact, Erin is a morphine addict, and Terry is a sleazy voyeur who wants to use Ruby and Rhett’s $4 million trust fund to pay off money he’s borrowed from ruthless loan sharks. Things turn ugly and violent as Ruby tries to fight back and protect her brother.
As noted above, Ruby is a rude, rebellious teen, and Rhett is an annoying video game addict. These things hinder viewers’ sympathy toward the children, even though they have just lost both of their parents in one awful blow. Thus, there exists a major dramatic problem in the first half of the movie.
THE GLASS HOUSE effectively builds sinister tension, however, as Ruby learns more about her new guardians. Ruby finally gains sympathy when the details of her plight are revealed. By the end of the movie, she is able to turn the tables on her evil antagonists, including the villainous loan sharks hassling Terry. Ultimately, this movie has a positive premise which teaches viewers that family values can survive tragedy and evil. The filmmakers should have made this premise stronger. They also include some darker content in their movie that’s not suitable for children or younger teenagers. Therefore, THE GLASS HOUSE deserves an extreme caution.