Perhaps Leelee Sobieski's best scene came before the new thriller The Glass House even started.
Joy Ride, a new action/thriller due out in a couple of weeks, was the second preview before the main feature. Joy Ride, starring Paul Walker and the earlier mentioned Sobieski, looks like an edge-of-your-seat, what's going to happen next?, slammin' good-time movie.
It was definitely more action-packed and exciting than what the folks in the theater that night were about to see.
The premise of The Glass House is this: A happily married couple dies in a horrible car accident leaving their teenage daughter Ruby (Sobieski) and 11-year-old son without guardians. The well-prepared parents had a plan, though.
In case of an unforeseen tragedy, like this one, the children were to be left in the custody of some long- time family friends. Are you ready for this one? The new guardians are Erin and Terry GLASS (played by Diane Lane and Stellan Skarsgaard). It’s meant to be a creepy and clever but instead it’s just cliched and lame.
The guardians move the kids into their gigantic Ocean View, Malibu house. They feed them the best food and buy them the nicest gifts, but something just isn't right. Could it be that the Glass family isn't what it's cracked up to be? (Forgive me for the horrible pun, but I couldn't let it pass.)
What follows is a boring walk in the park. The plot is predictable and over-used. The characters are paper thin and the acting is forced at best. Erin Glass is supposedly a diabetic struggling to survive, but her over-acting and constant on-screen fidgeting give away a big plot turn way before you are supposed to suspect anything.
Trevor Morgan (Jurassic Park 3) plays Leelee's younger brother. This isn't a far reach from the other characters that he has played previously. He is the typical, annoying kid, too childish to help and too naive to matter.
His character in Jurassic Park 3 was exactly the same as this one, except he was a lot smarter and more resourceful against all of those dinosaurs than he is against this movie's villain. I don't mean to pick on a 14-year-old; he isn't a bad actor. There just aren't enough good roles for youngsters to go around. To have come this far in his career it would be a shame for him to go back into sharing screen time with Barney or some other teeny-bopper icon.
Leelee Sobieski does provide the best scenes in the film. Her curious, untrusting mind leaves her open for many obvious ambushes. Even though the entire audience knows what is about to happen, she does a good job acting like she is clueless. The two suspenseful moments are over before you know it and you feel cheap for tensing up at all.
The ending, while it doesn't leave you hanging, doesn't give you the satisfaction that you were hoping for.
There are no big plot turns, no scary twists and no refund on your time or money.
Grade: F
PG-13, 111 minutes
