The Glass Castle Blu-ray Review

Lionsgate; PG-13; 127 minutes; Amazon

Now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD from Lionsgate Home Entertainment is the emotional drama The Glass Castle. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the film stars Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts, and Max Greenfield.

Based on the memoir of the same name by Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle tells the story of Walls' real-life troubled childhood. Her father, Rex (played by Woody Harrelson), is an alcoholic who can't keep a job and her mother, Rose Mary (played by Naomi Watts), is an eccentric artist. Jeannette and her siblings (Lori, Josh, and Maureen) never had a normal life. They lived in poverty and were dragged from place to place, as their parents squatted in abandoned homes.

The film flips back and forth from the '80s where an adult Jeannette is trying to have a normal life in New York and then it flashes back to show what life was like during her childhood.

While the cast received great reviews for their performances, the same cannot be said for the film itself, as it was heavily criticized for the mishandling of the source material.

Special Features include:

Deleted Scenes
The Glass Castle: Memoir to Movie
A Conversation with Jeannette Walls
Making of "Summer Storm" by Joel P West
Scoring The Glass Castle

Final Thoughts

While I've heard about Jeannette Wall's memoir, I've never read it, so I didn't really know what to expect before watching The Glass Castle on Blu-ray last night. I do recall seeing a few advertisements for the film and from what I saw, I thought it would be a heartwarming movie. Sadly, that's not exactly what The Glass Castle is about.

Yes, there are several heartfelt scenes, but there are also many disturbing ones. The cast does an excellent jobs in their roles, especially Woody Harrelson who gives a great performance an alcoholic father.

The picture and sound quality on the Blu-ray are both topnotch. While there aren't too many special features, I enjoyed watching the ones that are on it.

Overall, The Glass Castle is a well-made, but flawed biographical drama with insanely good performances.