Wizard-8 Review of Glass House: The Good Mother

Glass House: The Good Mother (2006 Video)

Small scale in more than one way

[20 June 2014]

I have never seen the original "The Glass House" movie, so I can't say how this sequel compares to the original. But I do have the advantage of judging this sequel on its own merits. Actually, from what I have heard of the original movie, this is more of a remake than a sequel. And a not particularly expensive remake, I must say. While the movie doesn't look downright cheap, it does show a limited budget from shooting almost all the movie in one location to the grainy cinematography. (Though there is some impressive camera movement.) But the sort of low rent feel of the enterprise is not the real problem here. The movie feels kind of limp, with few thrills - you'll really feel that it's just going through the motions instead of trying to grab the audience by the throat. Another big mistake is that the movie fails to get the audience to have sympathy for the teenage protagonist - she comes across as kind of sullen and grumpy even before things start going wrong for her and her brother. To add to the problems are some glaring unanswered questions, like who the intruder was outside in the first part of the movie, or why the couple acted the way they did in the opening scene, which doesn't make sense after what we eventually learn. In the end, this is a movie to skip watching.