When The Fuse Burned Out On The Psycho-Thriller Genre-Diane Lane’s “The Glass House” (2001)-A Film Review

DVD Review

By Leslie Dumont

The Glass House, starring Diane Lane, 2001

To be honest with you I think this scary psycho-thriller genre has been overplayed, has lost its ability to scare if that was the intention. That seems to me to be the case with the run-up on this latest thriller The Glass House that Greg Green threw at me since I was next in line to do one because it had been a while and Greg didn’t want me to go stale or something. I don’t know if there are any socially redeeming qualities to the psycho-thriller genre so I don’t feel any compulsion to add some weight by placing it in some outlandishly overrated cultural context. Let’s call it pure entertainment for a day when things didn’t go too badly at the office, school, golf course or whatever your social activity had been and can stand the weight of whatever some holy goof of a screenwriter decided would play in Peoria, or Pasadena which is probably more likely as an audience response testing site.

World weary teenager Ruby, all aflutter with the cares of the day to day existence of high school manias and getting through the day to hit the Valley Girl night comes up short, has to grow up really very quickly when her parents died in what turned out to be a mysterious car accident. That left her and her seriously holy goof brother Rhett with a ton of dough and no home. Enter Terry and Erin Glass and hence the film title, ex-neighbors of the family in the Valley who hit some dough and moved to the swanky districts of ocean view Malibu and a glass-encased house, or maybe that is the reference in the title. Who knows and in the end who cares except a lot of craziness goes on in that swanky house. The Glasses are deemed to be worthy of taking care of the kids and so that starts the ball rolling. But sharp Ruby full of angst, alienation and teen hubris (not to be confused with real hubris like from the actions of the Greek gods) begins very early on to suspect that not all is right with this picture. Helped of course by the foolery of Terry and the aid of junkie Erin.    

We are then taken on a roller coaster ride of twists and turns to what we already know, since Ruby is our indefatigable guide, that these people are frauds, are up to their necks in treachery (and Erin dope) and that in the end Terry and Erin will one way or another take the big step-off for their sins, mortal and venial. Will learn the hard way what comes to mind from the film’s title-people in glass houses should not throw stones-or something like that. We begin to learn that lesson, begin to learn not all is right in sweet paradise Malibu when dear sweet Ruby finds out that their old life is kaput, no more private schools, social activities as they are basically entombed in the glass cage. Reason: simple-Terry is up to his eyeballs to loan sharks and Erin, who in the end will commit suicide has nothing but a slow death junkie’s lament going for her.       

Along the way Terry tries to not so subtly seduce the winsome Ruby, attempts to kill her and her brother by various means, gains some reprieves from assorted social welfare agencies by ruse and fancy-footwork, runs afoul of the mob’s “repo” men and in a final confrontation Ruby wastes the wastrel Terry via a good kick in the police car butt. Maybe after twenty years of therapy and some serious forget drugs these kids will be able to sleep at night again without the nightmares but as we leave this scene I would not count on it. No way. Now way would I call this a great thriller by any means and the thing would not be unwelcome as yet another example of the overkill of the genre. Too bad.