Opaque Motives

[setsuled]

Watch on YouTube

Stellan Skarsgard and Diane Lane adopt Leelee Sobieski for sinister purposes in 2001's Glass House. I was surprised to find this a pretty effective thriller, putting me in mind of Hitchcock's Suspicion.

Sobieski's character, Ruby, and her little brother are orphaned after their parents die in a car accident. They're taken in by Terry and Erin Glass, wealthy former neighbours played by Skarsgard and Lane.

Sobieski's not bad as the point of view character but Lane and especially Skarsgard have the most fun pushing the envelope of just how suspiciously they can act, very much like Cary Grant in Suspicion. Bruce Dern has a small role as the kids' trust fund lawyer and helps sell that sense of ambiguity and paranoia.

Evidence of Terry's true nature starts to become pretty clear but it's always plausible that it's just Ruby who can see it. When a social worker visits, the Glasses cunningly arrange for Ruby to have a separate bedroom from her brother. One of her complaints in a secret meeting with the worker was that she and her brother had to share a room. The conversation between the Glasses and the social worker is arranged just right so that Ruby's believably dumbstruck enough not say anything when a reference is made to her having her own room.

This is definitely a case of the Rotten Tomatoes score, which is only 22%, being dead wrong.