This movie didn't move me much at all. I'm not sure what I was supposed to feel after the movie was over. Was I supposed to feel sympathetic toward the father? No, I didn't. Since he was the main focus of the film, it lost me right there.
Sure, it's great that the kids survived their childhood without major psychological damage (that we know of), and that one of them became a fairly well-known author. Still not enough to make me care much. I could have done without the oversentimental last part of the movie, too. I might have liked it better if it were, say an hour and forty minutes long instead of over two hours. The last half hour was painful for me to sit through.
I can understand why Jeanette Walls, as a writer, would have written a memoir about her childhood. It might have been a bit cathartic for her to do so, too. But I would bet there are a thousand other similar stories out there, not all with such happy endings. Did it need to be made into a movie? In my opinion, no.
A similar true-life movie that I liked better was "The Poker House", even though it has a lower rating on IMDB. It wasn't really all that good, either, but it had better overall performances in it, including one by a then-unknown Jennifer Lawrence. The performances in "The Glass House" seemed wooden to me; none of the acting stood out, none of the characters really grabbed me or made me care about them. With one huge exception: I thought Woody Harrelson was excellent. He's an underrated actor, in my opinion. He was able to inject nuance and believability into his character. His was an award-worthy performance in an otherwise mediocre movie.
Sure, it's great that the kids survived their childhood without major psychological damage (that we know of), and that one of them became a fairly well-known author. Still not enough to make me care much. I could have done without the oversentimental last part of the movie, too. I might have liked it better if it were, say an hour and forty minutes long instead of over two hours. The last half hour was painful for me to sit through.
I can understand why Jeanette Walls, as a writer, would have written a memoir about her childhood. It might have been a bit cathartic for her to do so, too. But I would bet there are a thousand other similar stories out there, not all with such happy endings. Did it need to be made into a movie? In my opinion, no.
A similar true-life movie that I liked better was "The Poker House", even though it has a lower rating on IMDB. It wasn't really all that good, either, but it had better overall performances in it, including one by a then-unknown Jennifer Lawrence. The performances in "The Glass House" seemed wooden to me; none of the acting stood out, none of the characters really grabbed me or made me care about them. With one huge exception: I thought Woody Harrelson was excellent. He's an underrated actor, in my opinion. He was able to inject nuance and believability into his character. His was an award-worthy performance in an otherwise mediocre movie.