Review of The Glass Castle (2017) by Yash B — 22 Aug 2017

The movie version of "The Glass Castle" hits a good number of the emotional notes that the book did but ends up being a lesser way to experience the story. It is still a competently made and very well acted movie that overall was engaging to watch.

I remember reading the memoir in high school and still consider it to be my favorite book I read for school. The movie chooses to approach the story in a nonlinear way and jumps from the past to the present throughout the movie.

I didn't mind this but I would say I enjoyed the chronological telling of the story presented in the book a bit more. The movie also toned down the story in a few ways to clearly get the PG-13 rating.

While this will help the film reach a wider audience, I'm not sure if it does complete justice to the story. I don't like to be someone who compares the book to the movie because I know creative decisions need to be made but since this is a true story I would say read the book before watching the movie because it is more engaging and impactful.

Despite being lesser than the book, I still feel this is a very good movie. Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson are perfect choices for the two main characters and everyone else is also very well cast. The movie hits enough emotional notes and tells a fairly compelling story that is still worth seeing.

I would say it is one of the better movies of 2017 that has been fairly underrated.