By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Cast: Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts, Ella Anderson, Chandler Head, Max Greenfield, Josh Caras, Sadie Sink, Brigette Lundy-Paine and Robin Bartlett.
Rating: Average.
Destin Daniel Cretton, writer/director of “Short Term 12” brings “The Glass Castle”, once again he teams up with Brie Larson and I have to say that his film could have had a much better result.
Based on the memoir book written by Jeannette Walls and inspired by true events, this is her story of her origins coming from a dysfunctional family of nonconformist nomads run by her alcoholic father Rex (Woody Harrelson) and her eccentric artist mother Rose Mary (Naomi Watts).
They are constantly move city to city since Rex is constantly fired and is not a stable man. This is the journey of a woman who really worked hard despite of the constant suffering she had to get where she is.
The reason why I mentioned that “The Glass Castle” could have been a much better film is due to the screenplay written by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham.
The movie was predictable from beginning to end and I felt by moments that I was watching a soap opera with this movie
The movie was too long and besides I feel that this movie should have been told in this case by Brie Larson´s point of view and not cutting back in forth with the flashbacks of her childhood to when she landed her job at the New York Magazine.
I feel that we got the point and I feel that only a few flashbacks would have been enough for telling this story.
The movie was too slow and I feel that the Destin Daniel Cretton tried to make a similar approach to last year´s “Captain Fantastic” but with all do respect the previous mentioned film was ten times much better.
There were moments in the film were the character of Woody Harrelson was trying to promise something to one of her daughters something that it was not possible for him to achieve and the filmmakers used score that didn´t match to that moment.
If more time would have been invested in the screenplay, I´m sure that we would be talking of another film.
Not everything in this film is bad and it hat it´s good moments to. The third act of the film is very well written and I liked the message that was delivered that has to do with forgivness and accept people just the way someone is.
Thanks for the third act of the film I´m giving “The Glass Castle” a marginal recommendation. Don´t expect to see a masterpiece with this film and I feel the talented of this film was wasted since the filmmakers didn´t took advantage of it and gave their weakest performances till this date.