The Glass House film review

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THE GLASS HOUSE

Here's a novel concept: a thriller with no thrills, and only a modicum of common sense. The Glass House is bargain basement hokum, fuelled by outrageous twists and a splatter of over-the-top violence. Wesley Strick's screenplay strays so far from reality that, at times, it verges on farce, as its plucky orphan protagonists turn gung-ho heroes.

When their parents are killed in a freak car accident, level-headed teenager Ruby (Leelee Sobieski) and her little brother Rhett are sent to live with their new guardians - wealthy former neighbours Terry and Erin Glass - as instructed in their parents' will.

At first, the move seems like just what the two children need, and the location - swanky, sun-drenched Malibu - is idyllic. However, both siblings have trouble fitting in at school, and the Glass's interest in their well-being verges on emotional suffocation.

Ruby suffers the brunt of the attention, her every movement scrutinised by her over-bearing guardians. During the tentative first few weeks, Ruby begins to suspect that her new guardians are not the ideal surrogate parents that everyone would believe.

Her fears appear to be confirmed one stormy night when she discovers Erin drugged out in the living room, with a hypodermic needle in her arm. Soon after, she overhears a heated debate between Terry and a pair of loan sharks, and the seeds of an idea is planted.

Perhaps the Glass's are after the money, which the childrens' parents left them in the will. Rhett is too engrossed in his new video games system to take much notice of his sister's warnings, and family lawyer Mr Begleiter seems unwilling to react. Are Ruby's suspicions about the Glass's justified or is she reacting to the loss of her parents?

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but the film-makers responsible for this thriller-by-numbers certainly deserve a few rotten tomatoes. The plot signposts every twist well in advance - all two of them - and Skarsgard's surrogate father is so creepily nice that you wonder why any parent, of sound mind, would place their children in his care.

Sobieski and Morgan are appealing, without being too winsome, and their final rebellion against the Glass's is so poorly planned, that it verges on plausible. Unintentionally so.