La prison de verre 2

High class intense melodrama which had my attention.

Mother loses child and adopts two as replacement; yet the mother and her husband have dark secrets in a house full of them. And on one level this film goes further than child endangerment but into child cruelty and worse.

Excellent photography, generally very good direction with a few blimps near the end.

Super performances from the two female leads which makes the film.

The actress playing the mother is sensationally "bad".

Worthy of a sound: 7/10.

An orphaned teen girl (Jordan Hinson) & her little brother start a new life in remote Simi Valley, Ca, with their adoptive parents (Angie Harmon & Joel Gretsch), a seemingly-ideal couple who tragically lost their son a year earlier. Jason London is on hand as the kid's acting-godfather.

"Glass House: The Good Mother" (2006) naturally has a similar plot to the first film, but the kids are a little younger here and, as the title implies, the mother is now the key adversary. Being a direct-to-video release it lacks the budget of the first film with Leelee Sobieski and Stellan Skarsgård (2001) and therefore lacks the theatrical pizazz thereof, having a Lifetime movie vibe.

As with that first movie, the awesome mansion itself is a highlight, located just a dozen miles north of the Glass manor used in the previous flick (in real-life). Unlike the first film, however, the actors are all no-names. Yet they rise to the challenge, especially Harmon as the increasingly not-good mother and Hinson as the formidable girl, who essentially becomes the "final girl" à la slasher flicks.

Not that this is a horror movie, but there is that element. It's more realistic than the conventional slasher, which typically involve some eye-rolling psycho wearing a mask and brandishing a machete, etc. Here, the diabolic individual is more every-day and perfectly harmless on the surface, which somehow makes it more chilling.

The flick effectively addresses the mental illness factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), aka Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP). These types of psychos actually exist, unfortunately.

The film runs 1 hour, 34 minutes, and was shot in Simi Valley, Ca, with some stuff done in Hollywood.

GRADE: C

Having lived with an abusive stepparent, this hit the nail bang on the head. DAMNED scary. Soundtrack was nice, acting superb all around, and the photography lush and brilliantly planned.

Actually, I'd rate this as an 8.5, because the enabling stepfather was just a little TOO accommodating, although the writing is otherwise well-crafted. The reason I gave this a ten is to offset the overly biased previous postings which don't give this movie its due. The visuals are truly stunning, the sets gorgeous, and the camera-work clever and innovative.

Oh, and the actresses are unbelievably beautiful. The "stepmother" is a latter-day Ali McGraw, and it's testament to her talent that she can go from dazzlingly, breathtakingly sexy to skin-crawlingly scary within a matter of seconds.

The "stepdaughter" is also great, absolutely believable and so pretty and vulnerable you know she's going to be a major heartbreaker as she matures.

Don't listen to the negative voices. Judge for yourself. A solid, high-tension, superbly-crafted thriller.

(And no, I have no connection whatsoever to anyone involved.)

When a sequel is direct to video and ups the ante to a 'R' rating, shouldn't the audience hope for a more salacious and violent viewing experience? Unfortunately, with the perpetually stern and severe, though gorgeous, Angie Harmon starring, those hopes are laid to rest. Whereas the original was proud of its B-roots and had an excellent slimy, perverted performance from Stellan Skaarsgaard...this film actually wants the audience to take the plot of a grieiving mother gone overprotective gone crazy, seriously. The original had a PG-13 rating, and yet delighted in ingénue Leelee Sobieski's nubile, well-developed frame while providing its audience with delightful action and a propulsive narrative. In this poor sequel, we get a whiny prudish protagonist, very little violence, and stultefyingly lame tension. The original was set in that amazingly austere cold house, made of actual glass. "The Glass House 2: the Good Mother" instead employs its characters in an adobe-styled Spanish château, which leads me to the poor choice of cinematography. The allegiance to using a gold-hued tint to add Latina flair to the visuals was poor decision-making especially considering the milquetoast energies enemating from the acting crew. (There are white people still in Cali, y'know.) I like Joel Gretsch, but when Jason London has more inner force than any of the other talent, "Houston, we may have a problem."

Well, after seeing "The Good Mother" my heart was still racing. It was basically about,grieving mother,Eve Goode and her obsessive desire to be a caring, protective, loving, healing mother, who's recent victims happen to be recently orphaned Abby and Ethan Snow. Abby soon finds out that her foster mother's obsessive desire is as extreme as it is deadly, when she finds out her foster mother's frightening secret.

Sequel to The Glass House, which itself was entertaining, "The Good Mother" fit along well with the previous plot. It was quite close to being the same thing.

I personally enjoyed the film, It was suspenseful at times and very interesting.The acting was good and the emotion was evident.I recommend it, to all who enjoy suspenseful,and thrilling films with a little bite to it.