The Glass House (film)
| The Glass House | |
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| Directed by | Daniel Sackheim |
| Produced by | Neal H. Moritz |
| Written by | Wesley Strick |
| Starring | Leelee Sobieski Diane Lane Stellan Skarsgård Bruce Dern Kathy Baker Trevor Morgan Chris Noth |
| Music by | Christopher Young |
| Cinematography | Alar Kivilo |
| Editing by | Howard E. Smith |
| Studio | Original Film |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 14, 2001 |
| Running time | 106 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $22,000,000 |
The Glass House is a 2001 film directed by Daniel Sackheim and written by Wesley Strick.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Sixteen-year-old Ruby (Sobieski) and eleven-year-old Rhett (Morgan) lose their parents in a car accident. Their parents' will is not a recent one, but in accordance with its terms the children are placed under the guardianship of family neighbors from some years back, the childless couple Erin (Lane) and Terry (Skarsgård) Glass, who live in a large glass house in Malibu. There are early indications that all is not well - the children have to share a bedroom, they are no longer educated privately, Rhett is allowed to play with games consoles at all times, and Ruby is made uneasy by Terry's sexual hints when they are alone. Ruby comes across Erin's bathroom cabinet with bottles of Morphine, Fentanyl and other pharmaceuticals, with no patient/prescriber information on the bottles, and sees Erin injecting herself (though the couple claim this is for diabetes). Ruby tries without success to get the trust fund lawyer to accept her concerns at first, and a visiting social worker is taken in by the Glass's assurances.
There are signs that Terry is in debt to loan sharks, and Ruby gradually realises that her new foster parents are after the siblings' $4 million trust fund. After some research of her own, Ruby discovers that the car her parents died in was a BMW loaned from the Glass' company, instead of her father's Saab, and suspects that Terry was responsible for their deaths.
Ruby then tries to escape from the Glass' house with Rhett by taking Terry's car, but is delayed by a flooded highway. Terry catches up with them and takes them both home. Once back, Ruby tries to make a run for it, but she is grabbed by Terry, and then Erin injects her with a drug.
Ruby remains drugged for around a month. Meanwhile Erin, a doctor and drug addict, is caught by the medical director taking drugs from the storage for personal use, and is fired. She blames her husband.
Erin watches an old home video of her and Ruby on a beach, happy and healthy. Then, overwhelmed with guilt, she overdoses and dies. Ruby wakes up from her drugged coma with Erin's dead body lying next to her. Shocked to find his wife dead, Terry traps Ruby and Rhett in the basement. Eventually, the two escape.
At the same time, the loan shark's thugs arrive, and they kill the trust fund lawyer who happens to be visiting to confront Terry over his use of the trust fund and the treatment of the children. The thugs take Terry away in his own car, with Terry pleading for them to take the Volvo, without realising that Ruby has managed to slash the tires with an improvised knife. After a brutal car accident due to Terry tampering with his own Jaguar,[1] in the same fashion as he did with the kids' parents, the car runs over a cliff.
The thug is killed, but Terry survives, although heavily wounded. Meanwhile the children are being driven in a police car. The policeman stops at the scene of the accident and is killed by Terry when investigating. After climbing back up the embankment, armed with a gun, Terry tries to lure Ruby and Rhett towards him. Ruby hits Terry with the police car, killing him instantly.
In the end, Ruby and Rhett end up living with their uncle Jack who takes them to Chicago.
[edit] Cast
- Leelee Sobieski as Ruby Baker
- Diane Lane as Erin Glass
- Stellan Skarsgård as Terrence 'Terry' Glass
- Bruce Dern as Begleiter
- Kathy Baker as Nancy Ryan
- Trevor Morgan as Rhett Baker
- Chris Noth as Uncle Jack Avery
- Rita Wilson as Grace Avery-Baker (uncredited)
- Michael O'Keefe as Dave Baker
- Vyto Ruginis as Don
- Gavin O'Connor as Whitey
- Carly Pope as Tasha
- China Jesusita Shavers as E.B.
- Agnes Bruckner as Zoe
- Michael Paul Chan as Mr. Kim
- Rachel Wilson as Hannah
[edit] Box office
The film opened at #2 in its opening weekend at the U.S. Box office, behind Hardball. The Glass House grossed $18 million domestically and $5.5 million overseas.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ "1997 Jaguar XK8 (X100)". Internet Movie Cars Database. 2007. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_1565-Jaguar-XK8-X100-1997.html.
- ^ "The Glass House". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=glasshouse.htm.
[edit] External links
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