The Glass Castle - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Glass Castle

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie

The Glass Castle initially reminded me of last year’s Captain Fantastic starring Viggo Mortensen, in regards to a father raising his family in a “non traditional” sort of way. The initial opening of the film with the young daughter Jeannette being smuggled out of the hospital to skip out on expensive medical bills immediately brought me back to the scene in Captain Fantastic where Viggo and his children scammed the store out of supplies while diving back into the car for a fast getaway. However, the story differs quite drastically after that, taking a much darker and more melancholy tone as you realize dear old dad isn’t as benevolent as we thought he was. Taken from the memoir of the same name by journalist Jeannette Walls, the story is a back and forth approach telling of the family’s upbringing as told through the eyes of a younger, and older Jeannette. The story is fascinating to watch, but one that is ultimately a tough sell as it can’t seem to capture the emotion and “heart” that is very obviously trying to be stitched into the tale.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton made his breakout film Short Term 12 back in 2013, which also starred Brie Larson and several other indie stars, but it seems he has tried to make a more mainstream film with The Glass Castle, taking on the best selling memoir of Jeannette Walls and making it into a strange mixture of mainstream and indie film making. While Brie is credited as playing Jeannette Walls, the first 1/3rd of the film she is nothing more than a whisper, as we go back in time to the strange upbringing of the Walls family (where she is played by Chandler Head and Ella Anderson depending on age). The Walls family is NOT your average happy American family. Rex Walls (Woody Harrelson) is a strange bird, and he and his wife Rose Mary (Naomi Watts) live off the grid while the big dreaming ex Air Force pilot teaches the 4 children about how to live, and I mean LIVE, life outside the lines.

Flash forward to adult Jeannette, we see that she has gone on to make something of herself, and writes a gossip column in New York City. Not only that, but she is getting ready to marry a rich New York financial guru named David (Max Greenfield) and start a family, but she is still plagued by the fact that her parents are living homeless in New York, living their bizarre lifestyle. As the film progresses we see just WHY Jeannette is so “distant” and emotionless when it comes to her parents. It seems that the happy veneer of the first 1/3rd of the film is shaken off when its revealed that Rex is not just a dreamer. He’s a bit of a failed man at everything he does and it’s all self inflected. 2 quarts of booze a day along with a double pack of cigarettes and there festers a dark man who lives for the bottle, and can barely take care of his own family. Each turn he takes brings them deeper and deeper into squalor, and what was once a happy childhood of ignorant kids, becomes a prison as the 4 children slowly begin to make their escape.

The Glass Castle creates a series of characters that are very difficult to root for as you being to know them. Rex is a seemingly sweet father at first, but soon devolves into his more base desires as it becomes known that he flits around the countryside with his family mainly because he can’t hold a job and is a chronic (and sometimes dangerous) alcoholic that sits on his laurels and can barely feed his family. Rose Mary isn’t much better, even though she’s a bit warmer, being that she’s a chronic enabler of her husband and would rather sit around painting her art than take care of her family and feed them (which ends up in disaster in the opening few moments of the film). The same can be said for Jeannette as she’s a bit of a bitter woman in her old days, and refuses to deal with her troubled past. Something that creates an emotional barrier between her and the audience, much like how she has created an emotional barrier between herself and her parents.

The Glass Castle tends to be more successful with the smaller, more intimate, portions of the movie than as a whole, which means the film is rather fractured and hard to connect with on an emotional level. Little vignettes, and little sections of the film are truly fascinating, especially the ones that show Rex as the big hearted dreamer rather than the old drunk that he becomes part way through the film. His interactions with a young Jeannette are both touching and heartbreaking, giving Ella Anderson some of the most poignant portions of the movie to play. The ending also is a bit abrupt and a sometimes too saccharine sweet. Especially after you know what type of person that Rex has been. The strange feeling that they were going for an emotional and fond remembrance of Rex’s impact on them is in direct contrast with how the last half of the film portrayed him, so fond memories and heartfelt tears just seem out of place. It’s a good try by Destin Daniel Cretton, and the acting is superb all the way around, but The Glass Castle can’t seem to grab the viewer by the emotional core and create something great out of the interesting (and many times fascinating) true life story.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content involving family dysfunction, and for some language and smoking




Video:

About the only information I could find on the film’s shooting style was a little blurb in the credits that says “Captured by Alexa”, which makes sense considering the film’s lightly glossy (and occasionally flat) presentation. The film employs a variety of different grading styles, ranging from a wheat coloring for the flashback sequences, to the a more modern teal look for the present day interactions with Rex and Jeannette. Fine details are usually quite excellent, with the modern looking shots taking the cake for being the sharpest and cleanest. The flashbacks use a diffused and soft filter, which is most likely to coincide with the makeup and smoothness required to “de-age” Naomi Watts and Woody Harrelson. Fine details can get a bit less noticeable, although it does have a wonderfully “aged” look to those shot. Black levels are already good looking, but never exemplary, and the film itself seems to be devoid of any artifacting or digital problems. An all around good looking Blu-ray.





Audio:

I was actually REALLY surprised to see that Lionsgate was not using DTS-HD MA as their encoding method this go around. They have been famous for using DTS-HD MA for as long as the Blu-ray format has been around, but this time they went with a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD track that sounds very pleasing (if not a little bit overkill for this type of dramatic track). Vocals are crisp and clean, and the old timey music playing during the flashbacks fill out the surrounds quite nicely. Back channels and sides get a bit of a workout with ambient noises such as the swimming pool, or the hubbub of New York City traffic, but the majority of the movie is a very front heavy mix that is dependent on a strong front three speaker presentation. LFE is mild, but still prevalent in the film as it accentuates heavy traffic, or the pulsating throb of pressurized water as Jeannette struggles with trying to swim in the municipal swimming pool. The 7.1 mix is a BIT of an overkill for the dramatic film, but handles everything thrown at it without breaking a sweat.
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Extras:

• 9 Deleted Scenes
• The Glass Castle: Memoir to Movie
• A Conversation with Jeannette Walls
• Making of "Summer Storm" by Joel P West
• Scoring The Glass Castle

Final Score: ​

The Glass Castle is reminiscent of several other films about being raised in non traditional methods, but has a much darker twist to it. It’s an often fascinating take on the source material from the real life Jeannette Walls, although the darkness sometimes over shadows the happier portions of the film, and the ending desperately tries to tied the story into a happy ending reminiscing about Rex’s impact on their life (despite the heavy overshadowing of his drinking and abusive behavior). The films biggest flaw seems to be that it is emotionally distant and can’t seem to grab at the heart strings like it really seems to be trying to do. So much so that I had a difficult time feeling much of anything besides casual interest at watching the performances unfold. Audio and video are on par with most modern dramas, and the minimal extras follow suit. While I wouldn’t say it is the best movie of the year, The Glass Castle is interesting enough to warrant a solid watch for those interested by premise, and the technical specs are general quite good for those looking to buy.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Naomi Watts, Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson
Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton
Written by: Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Spanish DD 5.1
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 127 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 7th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Decent Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I am interested in checking this one out. Will view it once it is on amazon prime/netflix.