The Glass House (2001)

Imagine an alternate universe where I watch mostly good movies. This review is not from that universe.
The Glass House was a commercial flop and while it’s mostly blamed on the fact that it came out days after 9/11, it probably wouldn’t have fared better at any other time because it’s just generally not a great movie. 
It’s about a girl whose parents die, putting her together with her brother in the care of family friends and sending them to Miami where (of course) things start to get weird with their new guardians. The problems with this movie mostly stem from the heavy reliance on cliche. When I say that, I mean that literally every aspect of this movie’s plot and dialogue and even framing is steeped in cliche. Every time something happens, you can clearly see what is going to follow: what people will respond, what actions will take place, what drama will occur. It is not necessarily bad, it just doesn’t really have anything interesting going for it. There's not any innovation going on to overpower the fact that everything about the progression of this movie feels a little stale.
The best thing about The Glass House is Stellan Skarsgård, always convincingly creepy, and the effectiveness in a slow build of tension. Even though all of the teenagers looks far too old to be teenagers, Leelee Sobieski (remember Leelee Sobieski?!) plays the vulnerability of her character really well and it’s easy to feel for her character. I liked the push and pull between a desire to do what is safe or to do what seems right. 
What this movie really needed was a bit more time for editing, to not come out like three days after an event that shifted the cultural climate, and possibly some more decisive direction with a rewrite or two or three or twelve.
Rating: 3/10 - Watchable but also very weird, forgettable and way too long, and you can’t blame it all on the release date. 

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