The Glass House (2002) DVD - Thriller Movie Starring Leelee Sobieski & Diane Lane - Perfect for Movie Nights & Suspense Film Collections

"The Glass House" (2001) is one of those films that you enjoy during the viewing thanks to good directing, good technical film-making (production design-nicely staged action sequences-odd camera angles), and convincing dialogue; but look back at feeling generally dissatisfied. In part this is due to the moronic final ten minutes but then you realize that the premise itself is the real problem. You don't mind suspending disbelief during the viewing but afterward you resent the fact that a less elaborate script would have made your efforts unnecessary.The film is yet another example of Hollywood's ability, given a relatively large budget $20-30 Million, to put together a good-looking and visually believable suspense movie. It brings skilled technique to a plot that's a foregone conclusion, so the viewer must wait patiently for the characters to catch up.For film buffs (those who like to read a film) there is a fairly ambitious subtext inside "The Glass House"; working on both conscious and sub-conscious levels. Warm (orange tones) lighting for the safe/secure scenes and cold (blue tones) lighting for the places where things are off-kilter. The Glasses (Diane Lane and Stellan Skarsgard) literally live in a "glass" house above the Malibu beach. The theme, that nothing is what it appears to be, is supported by a production design of reflective surfaces; mirrors, glass, and water (its always raining) that distort the images. Mrs. Glass is a physician in a pain center who is secretly addicted to her own medications. Mr. Glass runs a seemingly thriving limo service transporting famous clients behind smoked glass windows.There are several references to "Hamlet" with Ruby Baker (Leelee Sobieski) essentially in the role of the Melancholy Dane. The writer must have had this linked together much better in the screenplay but apparently several key elements of this dynamic never made it into production. This story is told entirely from Hamlet's point of view, a Hamlet who is frustratingly slow on the uptake and unable to make up her mind. And the viewer is supposed to be wondering what is real, what is wrongly perceived, and what is paranoid illusion. They even try to fool you with a dream sequence involving the return of Ruby's mother. Fortunately Sobieski (who looks like a young Helen Hunt) is an excellent actress and up to the challenge. Her performance (she is in every scene) keeps you focused on her story. The many scenes between her and Skarsgard are the film's real strength; they must carry the film since no one else in the cast is much of a factor.The film opens with a "film within a film" device, which turns out to be a horror film, late- night viewing for Ruby and her rave-loving high school friends. This is an early clue to the "nothing is what it seems to be" theme. It turns out that Ruby is quite a party animal and has been successfully deceiving her parents about her nocturnal activities. This night she returns home to find police cars parked outside her house. Believing herself finally busted she enters the house only to be told that her parent's were both killed in a car accident earlier that evening. This sets the stage for life with the Glass family, a childless couple who were friends with her parents. You instantly know that they are odd because the director works so hard to make them appear normal.Ruby and her little brother Rhett (Trevor Morgan) leave the San Fernando Valley to live with the Glass's in their expensive hilltop house. Can you say: "Hansel and Gretel in a Gingerbread cottage"? Things are weird from the start as the two children must share a room. Whatever the original rationale for this idea might have been got lost in the deleted scenes of the screenplay and it just seems silly and illogical (given the Glasses long-term plans). I assume that it was originally included to reinforce the idea that living in a glass house offers no privacy but who knows.From this point a lot of stuff happens which can be taken in several different ways with the director constantly laying misdirection. Wesley Strick's screenplay gets way too elaborate and cute with this stuff and the film must rely on many convenient coincidences to advance the storyline. But since this starts at about the midway point its too late to stop viewing now. Listening to the Strick's commentary track on the DVD it is clear that there was considerable meddling with the original story by producers, dumbing down the more intellectually compelling elements.Still little would have been lost and the overall credulity would have benefited by a less ambitious conspiracy, there was no reason for the parent's deaths to have been anything but an accident; it would have raised the film's IQ if the Glasses had been opportunists rather than conspirators. And the attempt at irony with the brake fluid would have worked better if Mr. Glass had been knocked out and put in his car; only to wake up as it is speeding down the road.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.