Le château de verre

This movie really bothered me. Rex Walls was not a misunderstood man whose demons excused the neglect and abuse he made his family suffer. He was a drunk con-artist who made his family suffer by not providing them with food or shelter. He was also an expert in conning his children into believing that he actually loved and cared about them. The Mom was not portrayed properly, she was equally complicit with the neglect and horrible childhood those children endured. The movie should have been about the children and how they somehow managed to thrive, not their horrible alcoholic father and lazy mother.

This may not be a movie to watch if you were raised in a dysfunctional family. It may bring back unpleasant memories as it did for me. I had to first read some of the critic reviews to see if their reactions were like mine. They were to a large degree. The problem lies with the premise that such bad parents as the Walls, can somehow at movies end have a happy face put on it. Make no mistake, this is an unpleasant movie featuring first rate actors trying to make a flawed screen adaptation work. Ella Anderson is the star of the movie, but Woody Harrelson plays such a bad dad, it is hard to buy into the sympathetic ending. Brie Larson is good but her playing the adult Jeanette Walls is the less interesting part of the story.

Raising children is not easy. Being a child growing up in an unstable relationship and general instability character wise (parents wise that is), is not easy either. This movie is not easy to watch is what I'm trying to say. But it is rewarding if you are into dramas and really good performances. The lines are blurred between good and bad, and what parenting is about and how or what you should learn from the usually most important people in your life.

Woody Harrelson gives a powerhouse performance, which elevates but is also enhanched through the other great performances. As the saying goes, what doesn't kill you ... So if you like slow moving drama with a distraught time line, this is the one you may like

One of The Glass Castle's strongest aspects is how it takes an experience unique to a small amount of people, and makes it so relatable to the masses. 99% of the people watching this movie have not had an upbringing like Jeanette's, but the film crafts the story in a way that you can form parallels to your own life. This isn't just telling the story of someone's childhood; it becomes a commentary on the ups and downs of family life itself. And that's where The Glass Castle becomes something more profound. Some may have seen this relatability as a simplification of child abuse. But I would disagree. The movie never painted what happened in the film as a good thing. It never tried to spin that the parents for justified for how they chose to raise their kids. Instead, they showed that, when you boil it all down, the dysfunction between Jeanette and her parents stem from the same place as other people's parental issues. Instead of isolating the audience by showing us something completely and utterly foreign to us, they chose to make it relatable so that we could draw comparisons to our own lives...

I read the book many years ago when it first came out and found it fascinating. The film may not be up to some people's wants - there is not enough time to tell the whole story. Four children born into a very dysfunctional family. An eccentric mother who probably should not have had children, married to an alcoholic dreamer - and a talker of his dreams. BUT neither take good care of the children and the children end up raising themselves. I have always felt that all families are dysfunctional - with varying levels of function. Woody's character has many issues from his childhood and only one is made known. He has many demons to fight and mostly he doesn't fight - he dreams. I am not a fan of Woody Herrelson however this is a good role for him. I am most impressed with the acting of the younger cast - to be able to show the real emotions of those siblings - well done. I think it tells the story well given the obvious time constraints of a film. The emotions ere and believable.