Glass House suffers transparent plot

by Ben Grabow

The highest praise I could offer to The Glass House is that I didn't leave for the bathroom once during the entire movie. And I really had to go.

LeeLee Sobieski (mini-Helen Hunt) stars as Ruby, a sweet-16 suburbanite living with her nice little family in a nice little house in California. Together with her not-so-nice little brother, Rhett, Ruby and her family are living nice normal lives.

Life continues this way until one fateful night when Ruby comes home to a house full of police officers. Apparently, her parents have died in a horrible, plot altering car crash.

According to the family's will, their longtime neighbors, the Glass family, will take care of Ruby and Rhett. And no sooner has the coffin lid been closed, then Rhett and Ruby are off to Malibu to live in their new house.

But this is no ordinary house. It's a very big house, and it's full of windows. One could almost say that it's a... glass house.

Unfortunately, Mr. Glass has failed to follow one of Hollywood's more important commandments — Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 16-year-old daughter. But with a house that lacks walls and Ruby's tendency to take late night swims in cold water, who can blame him?

And in addition to the creepy Mr. Glass, Ruby also has to deal with a cracked-out new mom, played with a cutting severity by Diane Lane, who also appears in this year's Hardball.

Something's up in this house of Glasses, and it's up to Ruby to find out what's going on. And eventually she does. Just don't go to the bathroom while you're waiting, or you just might miss it.

There's a slight plot development every thirty seconds in this film — either a discarded bit of envelope or an overheard conversation — which means the movie will command your full attention. That is, if you're willing to pay attention at all.

Driving hard until a lackluster ending, The Glass House takes full advantage of some mild sexual tensions, stretching little LeeLee a little further than she can handle.

The director also makes an all-too-obvious reference to glass, windows, breaking glass, etc., every 15 seconds, or between every little plot development. Sometimes, the glass is PART of the plot development. How exciting.

The Glass House is a little exciting every now and then, but more often than not, it's more than a little mind numbing. If you do buy a ticket for this one, opt for a small soda at the snack bar.