The Glass Castle Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Glass Castle Blu-ray Movie Review

Lieutenant Fantastic?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 4, 2017

It’s perhaps a little ironic that one of Brie Larson’s first acting credits was on the short lived and now barely remembered sitcom Raising Dad, since in essence Larson once again essays a character in The Glass Castle who is decidedly more (traditionally) “parental” than her actual parents. The Glass Castle is based on the best selling 2005 memoir by journalist Jeannette Walls, who documented her unorthodox (to say the least) upbringing by two “free spirits”, in a tale that played at times like a weird mishmash of elements culled from Family Ties (in terms of “hippie”-esque parents giving birth to “straight arrow” children) and last year’s somewhat similar Captain Fantastic (in terms of an eccentric and perhaps troubled father attempting to live more or less off the grid with his brood). The Glass Castle reunites a number of people associated with 2013’s interesting independent feature Short Term 12, including star Brie Larson and director Destin Daniel Cretton, along with some other “below the line” technical crew. It’s obvious that Cretton is attempting to build more of a mainstream “entertainment” with The Glass Castle, eschewing some of the intimacy of Short Term 12 in favor of a somewhat glossier approach, a strategy that might seem an ill fit for Walls’ depiction of a family dynamic that is often pretty gritty and undeniably depressing. The film offers some excellent if occasionally overblown performances, but it tends to succeed more in bits and pieces than as an organic whole, though fans of Wells’ confessional tome may well find it a largely satisfying adaptation of her tale of long brewing family dysfunctions.

Kind of interestingly, while Brie Larson gets first billing in The Glass Castle, her particular portrayal of Jeannette Walls is almost a sidebar at times, with both Chandler Head (Jeannette as a child) and (especially) Ella Anderson (Jeannette as an adolescent) being offered some more visceral content as the film ping pongs back and forth between time frames to document Walls’ sometimes tortured upbringing. The adult Jeannette is almost self-created, or perhaps more accurately self-recreated, and while successful in the concrete jungle of New York City, she dissembles regularly about her family when pressed by her equally successful fiancé, David (Max Greenfield). When the adult Jeannette more or less stumbles on her parents Rex (Woody Harrelson) and Rose Mary (Naomi Watts) living pretty much as squatters in the less than tony lower east side of Manhattan, things reach a tipping point of sorts, leading to a series of supposedly revelatory flashbacks which offer some insight into Jeannette’s roiling psychology.

There are a number of things about this cinematic adaptation that may present certain obstacles to understanding, or at least empathy. The whole film seems to be an exercise in “finding your true self,” except — the adult Jeannette seems hell bent on denying the traumas of her upbringing. That denial is however itself perfectly understandable, since Rex is shown to be someone perhaps on the verge of mental illness, and at least an intermittently dangerous drunk. Rose Mary is ostensibly a little “softer” around the edges, but as is documented in the very first flashback vignette, she’s notoriously inadequate in her “supervisory” role as a mother, preferring to tend to her painting rather than feed her young daughter, something that ends up with near tragedy when the young Jeannette sets herself on fire and ends up in the hospital.

It’s impossible to really “root” for either Rex or Rose Mary, despite some at least passingly winning ways on both their parts, but it’s similarly at least a little hard to really “root” for Jeannette, since she’s obviously such an uptight, slightly duplicitous sort, at least in the film’s early going. Without any clear character with whom the audience can easily identify, the film is left to wallow in a certain turgid emotionalism as the peripatetic life of the Walls family is documented in a series of sometimes charming, but often fairly troubling, vignettes.

The Glass Castle is therefore arguably more successful in some of its smaller details than it is in its overall presentation. Some of the childhood scenes are quite moving, actually, especially when Rex is shown to be more of a quixotic dreamer than a bullying alcoholic. Harrelson is fine if never quite tortured enough as Rex (though his "young man" makeup isn't especially helpful in creating a realistic ambience), but I have to say for me personally this is one of those rare misfires from Watts, who almost seems to be in a bus and truck version of Grey Gardens at times. Speaking of that great Maysles documentary, The Glass Castle closes with some real life footage of various Walls members, including both Rex and Rose Mary, and that very footage made me wish this whole effort had been less of a "dramatization" and more of a documentary itself. The fascinating thing about these brief but telling snippets of the real life Walls is that the (now adult) kids seems perfectly well adjusted to the vagaries of their upbringing, which perhaps suggests that "finding your true self" may be an ultimately realizable goal, no matter what the hurdles.

My colleague Brian Orndorf evidently liked The Glass Castle even less than I did. You can read Brian's assessment here.

The Glass Castle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Glass Castle is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. The film's closing credits offer a helpful "Captured by Alexa" statement, and this has the typically sleek if sometimes fairly flat looking presentation associated with the technology. Detail levels are routinely quite high, though as so often seems to be the case with some contemporary films, some long and fairly aggressively graded sequences (often in yellows) tends to slightly diminish fine detail levels, even in some extreme close-ups. There's quite a bit of outdoor material scattered throughout the film, and the palette perks up appreciably in these moments, with naturalistic looking hues and some impressive depth of field. The high definition presentation sometimes undercuts the attempts to make Harrelson and Watts look "younger" in the flashback sequences (Watts fares better than Harrelson, in my not so humble opinion). There are no compression anomalies and no issues with image instability on this competent but rarely breathtaking presentation.

The Glass Castle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

What's this? A Lionsgate Blu-ray release without one of those annoying interstitial DTS-HD Master Audio animated logos before the film starts? For what may be the first time in my long reviewing history with Lionsgate, this release comes with a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track, rather than a DTS-HD Master Audio track. The surround activity here is consistent, if kind of only sporadically "showy". The film has a very enjoyable rootsy, jangly score that spreads through the side and rear channels quite winningly, and the many outdoor moments offer some good discrete channelization of ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly and is smartly prioritized on this problem free track.

The Glass Castle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Glass Castle: Memoir to Movie (1080p; 25:48) is an above average featurette that documents the adaptive process and which includes some good interviews with the cast and crew.


• A Conversation with Jeannette Walls (1080p; 15:24) covers a lot of the same adaptive content as the above piece, albeit from Walls' perspective. Weirdly, this begins with Walls introducing her ostensible interviewer, Joshua Rothkopf, rather than vice versa.


• Making of "Summer Storm" by Joel P. West (1080p; 3:22) is a brief piece profiling a song from the film.


• Scoring The Glass Castle (1080p; 4:06) is another brief piece looking at the score in general.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 9:32)

The Glass Castle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The basic story of The Glass Castle is often fascinating, even if it's more than a bit disturbing at times, but this cinematic adaptation never quite hit the emotional bullseye for me personally. It's simply too distant from its own subject matter, kind of like the adult Jeannette tries to be with regard to her past. That said, there are some excellent performances here, especially by the kids, and if the film is kind of unavoidably melancholy, that coda featuring the real life Walls seems to suggest the family has come through its struggles winningly. Technical merits are generally strong for those considering a purchase.