There’s plenty of soul in this tale of family dysfunction for anyone to relate to.
I read a quote on Twitter just prior to watching The Glass Castle. The quote stated: “Never follow a hippie to a second location.” I cannot for the life of me remember who said it, but it was the perfect line to read going into the film which boasts a main character whose entire upbringing was shaped and molded by two hippies who dragged her and her siblings from one dilapidated home to another. Fans of dysfunctional family dramas will find plenty to enjoy about this much-anticipated entery, from its stunning costuming, cinematography and acting. Above all however, the film more than fits the spot of the late summer drama release that’s not just well made, but also gives audiences plenty to sink their teeth into as summer rolls on.
Based on the bestselling memoir, The Glass Castle focuses on Jeannette Walls (Brie Larson) who enjoys a successful career as a New York gossip columnist. However Jeannette finds herself plagued by memories of her turbulent childhood as the child of hippie parents Rose Mary (Naomi Watts) and Rex (Woody Harrelson). As Jeannette approaches an emotional impasse in her life, she is forced to confront the past and deal with the life her parents gave her.
A lot about The Glass Castle has to deal with the inevitable tragedy that is a person’s upbringing. It’s about resenting the family you were given and the life they gave you in return. It’s so easy to be upset at Rex for spending money on alcohol instead of food for his starving children who have to resort to eating butter mixed with sugar after not having consumed any food for three days. Likewise it’s infuriating to see Rex teaching a young Jeannette how to swim by simply dropping her in the water, saving her and then dropping her in again a number of times. It’s also maddening to watch Mary Rose allow, and even justify, her husband’s behavior as the pair trek their four kids from one location to another, at a couple of points even living out of their car in the desert. What The Glass Castle does so well is tap into the frustrating realization that your parents aren’t superheroes; they’re human beings who are prey to the kind deep flaws that plague so man, but who typically attempt to do the best they can with the tools they’ve got.
While I never read the book, I can say that what the film version of The Glass Castle does incredibly well is force Jeannette to acknowledge that for better or worse, Rex and Rose Mary are responsible for the woman she became. This is particularly true in the case of Rex, whose penchant for independent determinism and unwavering ideology can be seen squarely in the movie’s central heroine. One of the main sources of Jeannette’s frustrations is that she knows this to be true. As the film gets deeper into Rex’s past, a sort of unspoken kinship becomes mixed in with that resentment, leaving Jeannette incredibly conflicted. In exploring Rex however, The Glass Castle doesn’t try to be a film about necessarily forgiving his actions, so much as it is about understanding them. The result will surely come across as incredibly cathartic, universal and resonant for anyone who has ever struggled at reconciling the life they were given with what they eventually made of it.
It’s a bonafide fact that actors are suckers for good parts and great scenes with which to let their talent and emotions run wild; and The Glass Castle more than lets its cast do just that. Ostensibly the main character, Larson has little to do in the film’s first half besides remember the more traumatizing instances from her character’s childhood. When the flashbacks catch up to her in age, she’s given yet another chance to illustrate her capabilities as an actress by centering on Jeannette’s pain and determination. Harrelson is the film’s tour-de-force as a man likewise trying to bury the darkness of his own life through a mix of alcohol and free-spiritedness. The best aspect of his work here is that he stays away from any over-the-top moments and instead makes Rex a truly complicated soul. Watts may not have much to do as her co-stars, but she gives Rose Mary a dreamy loveliness that she maintains throughout. Meanwhile, Robin Bartlett and Max Greenfield (as Rex’s domineering mother and Jeannette’s fiance, respectively) enjoy a pair of roles which afford them some decent turns.
Considering all the acclaim and popularity surrounding the original book, I was expecting something just a little more grand and dare I say, revolutionary from the film. The truth of the matter is that Jeannette’s story is just not all that novel or original. As diverting and emotional as it is, the film just doesn’t break new ground in the family dysfunction arena in the way that the stunning similarly-themed Captain Fantastic did last year with regards to its themes and motives. At the same time, the strength of The Glass Castle is impossible to refute. Although many of the dramatic instances can be foretold, each one represents a piece of so many people’s stories that it cannot help but touch anyone who watches it on some deeply relatable human level.
