Checked out the family drama The Glass Castle or, as I like to call, “See how many ways Woody Harrelson can be an unforgivable mean-ass drunk and then be asked to forgive him: the movie”. Ugh.
Based on a memoir of a gossip columnists which I haven’t read, this is the real-life story of a couple off-the-grid type parents and their four kids and how their off-kilter youth formed the lead sister in the present of the movie (1989). Those off-kilter years mainly involved their dad (Harrelson) being an awful person and their mom (Naomi Watts) barely caring. And their granny who might have molested their brother and dad when he was a kid. In the “present”, the daughter has to deal with her parents being homeless or squatters in NYC while she gets her life together.
It’s not like any of the drama and acting is bad here… but it’s really repetitive. See how many times Harrelson’s character can just be a mean drunk… wash, rinse, repeat. It got super tedious. I’m sure this all must have worked in the book but, as a movie, I kept wondering what made this person’s life so special that they made it a movie and what made it so special that I’m sitting in the theater for 2 hours straight. I’m sure it works as a book which can be more intimate, but as a movie, it failed. Or maybe as THIS movie, it failed. I dunno.
So, yeah, I’d skip this flick unless you happened to read the memoir and thought it might make a good flick. Maybe this movie is for you or maybe it’ll just turn you off. I can’t say.
Score: 72