Strong cast uplifts thriller 'Glass House,' but the story shatters under predictability

Strong cast uplifts thriller 'Glass House,' but the story shatters under predictability

Friday, September 14, 2001

By WILLIAM ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC

The first of three Leelee Sobieski vehicles scheduled for the fall, "The Glass House," has a good cast, a nicely sustained mood of paranoia and several genuinely creepy moments, but ultimately ends up being one more highly formulaic teen screamer.

MOVIE REVIEW

THE GLASS HOUSE

DIRECTOR: Daniel Sackheim

CAST: Leelee Sobieski, Diane Lane, Stellan Skarsgård

RUNNING TIME: 111 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for sinister thematic elements, violence, drug content and language

WHERE: Bella Bottega, Cinema 17, Everett 9, Factoria, Galleria 11, Grand Cinemas, Issaquah 9, Lewis & Clark, Longston 14, Meridian 16, Metro, Mountlake 9, Renton Village, Woodinville 12

GRADE: C+

MOVIE TRAILER

The young star plays a 16-year-old Valley Girl whose beloved parents are killed in the film's opening moments, leaving her and her 11-year-old brother financially secure and under the guardianship of a wealthy businessman (Stellan Skarsgard) and his doctor wife (Diane Lane).

But when the kids go to live with this seemingly ideal pair -- who are named Glass and live in a zillion-dollar, Malibu Beach, glass house -- they find things are not at all as they first appear: in fact, the Glasses are out to get them big time.

It remains to be seen if flavor-of-the-month Sobieski ("Eyes Wide Shut," "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries") will emerge from her bout of overwork as a star, but she's a credible focus here, with wonderfully expressive eyes and a slightly wonky manner that's very sympathetic.

She also gets able support from the rest of the cast: old pro Bruce Dern does his usual solid work as the heroine's one link to sanity, and Skarsgard and Lane -- actors not normally found in the teen-thriller genre -- are splendid as the guardians from hell.

Through the first half of the film, first-time director Daniel Sackheim (TV's "The X-Files") and screenwriter Wesley Strick ("The Saint," "Cape Fear") generate considerable suspense, and skillfully show us their world from the point-of-view of a rather paranoid teenager.

Unfortunately, they can't sustain the good opening. There are some glaring second-act continuity problems (references to obviously cut scenes) and by the time we got to the inevitable bloodletting climax, a Seattle preview audience was roaring at the film's glaring predictability.