The Glass Castle Review

      The Glass Castle is a big screen adaptation of the true story, memoirs of Jeannette Walls and has all the ingredients to be an Oscar contender. Directed by Short Term 12 helmer, Destin Daniel Cretton, the trailers for this movie tug on all the heart strings and had the award season vibe to it. The film stars Academy Award winner Brie Larson and Academy Award Nominee Woody Harrelson. Although the movie has all the ingredients and story elements in place, it ultimately falls flat because of poor execution with character appeal.

     The memoirs of Jeannette Walls (Brie Larson) share the crazy lifestyle that her and her family experienced growing up. Constantly moving around because of her alcoholic father, Rex (Woody Harrelson) and his nonconformist ways, Jeannette will do whatever she can to escape her toxic household.
     I will begin by stating that I have not read the book that this movie is based off so I went in with no expectations except the trailers. The biggest strength of this movie is the cast. Larson and Harrelson especially give a wonderful performance that shows how fantastic of an acting range these two have. If there is anybody from this movie that will receive reward recognition, it'll be Woody Harrelson. The guy can change emotion in the wink of an eye and can do so in such an incredibly powerful manner.
     Although Larson and Harrelson are the most powerful performances, the surrounding characters do a great job as well. Naomie Watts plays Rose Mary, Jennette's mother and has more layers to her then audiences will expect. The movie heavily relies on flashbacks to touch on Jennette's family dynamic and has younger actresses to play the earlier stages of Jennette's life. The younger Jeannettes, played by Ella Anderson and Chandler Head, do a stellar job of bringing Cretton's vision to the big screen. Child actors can be very hit or miss but Cretton does a great job with directing with.
     Where this movie ultimately falls apart is the pacing. The Glass Castle has a runtime of 127 minutes and suffers because of it. They could have trimmed off around 20 minutes of this thing. The pacing also suffers because of the writing. Without getting into spoilers, we are supposed to sympathize for Rex towards the third act of the movie but it'll be difficult for audiences to get on board because of all his prior issues. The direction they went in was totally understandable but unfortunately it was a botched execution.

     I discussed earlier how stellar this cast is however there is one character that'll take people out and that is Jeannette's fiancee, David played by Max Greenfield. Greenfield just feels as though he's playing a character in a different movie. He's the comedic relief of the movie but the timing that his jokes are inserted feel out of place and do not fit the overall tone of the film.
     Although The Glass Castle had the potential to be a great movie it ultimately falls flat because of the pacing and writing. The characters have a rushed development and audiences will have a hard time getting behind them.

Rating: 5.0 out of 10