Bottom line:
As a movie *out of context from what really happened*, it is a well put together movie.
Here's the problem though:
The Glass Castle book is about a woman's traumatic life under the thumb of two psychologically damaged parents pass on psychological trauma and abuse to their children.
We see parents lie to their children for their own selfish needs, put false hope in their heads only to let them down, and, of course, they also expose their children to other kinds of terrible behaviour.
Unfortunately, the movie is a classic Hollywood portrayal of such a subject. We go through a few key points that occurred in the book, only to have that counterpointed with points in the screenplay as to why the parents are actually sympathetic people, and why (at the end of the day) they truly cared about the children deep down.
The movie actually leaves audiences with the feeling and idea that the main character feels "lucky" to have the *terrible and abusive experience* she did in childhood.
Absolutely no *true* responsibility is assigned to the parents that abused their children in this movie-just the idea that they are sympathetic screw ups that tried their best.
Child abuse is a serious subject, and of course, we can leave it to Hollywood to take a memoir about that dark subject and turn it into a classic bitter-sweet tale of a dysfunctional (but of course all-American!) family simply getting through their lives as best as they can while deep down caring about their children.
As a movie *out of context from what really happened*, it is a well put together movie.
Here's the problem though:
The Glass Castle book is about a woman's traumatic life under the thumb of two psychologically damaged parents pass on psychological trauma and abuse to their children.
We see parents lie to their children for their own selfish needs, put false hope in their heads only to let them down, and, of course, they also expose their children to other kinds of terrible behaviour.
Unfortunately, the movie is a classic Hollywood portrayal of such a subject. We go through a few key points that occurred in the book, only to have that counterpointed with points in the screenplay as to why the parents are actually sympathetic people, and why (at the end of the day) they truly cared about the children deep down.
The movie actually leaves audiences with the feeling and idea that the main character feels "lucky" to have the *terrible and abusive experience* she did in childhood.
Absolutely no *true* responsibility is assigned to the parents that abused their children in this movie-just the idea that they are sympathetic screw ups that tried their best.
Child abuse is a serious subject, and of course, we can leave it to Hollywood to take a memoir about that dark subject and turn it into a classic bitter-sweet tale of a dysfunctional (but of course all-American!) family simply getting through their lives as best as they can while deep down caring about their children.