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The Glass House (2001)
Directed by Daniel Sackheim
Screenplay by Wesley Strick
There's certainly something odd about Ruby Baker's guardians, Terry and Erin Glass. First, they dress entirely in shades of blue and gray, the better to match their marble-floored, sharp-edged, opposite-of-cozy Malibu waterfront home. Then there's that big medicine cabinet full of morphine and other mysterious pharmaceuticals, and Erin's habit of wandering around the house with a hypodermic needle, and Terry's penchant for driving really fast on the wrong side of the road. And nobody in the house ever thinks to turn a light on. No wonder poor orphaned Ruby's in such a tizzy.
The plot's a warmed-over damsel-in-distress deal: Sixteen-year-old Ruby (Leelee Sobieski) and her young brother Rhett (Trevor Morgan) are taken in by Terry and Erin after their parents die in a mysterious car crash. But, as various sinister details of life with the Glasses emerge, Ruby realizes that she and her brother are in danger, and must plot an escape.
Newcomer Daniel Sackheim's direction mixes in nightmarish images of car crashes with standard cat-and-mouse suspense; drenching the movie in murky blue light that makes everyone's skin look a little grayish.
Leelee Sobieski, whose deep, almost gruff voice is reminiscent of Jodie Foster, is the best thing in the movie; she's in nearly every scene, and meticulously creates a brave, smart young woman.
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Stellan Skarsgard
as Terry Glass
Stellan Skarsgard became a star in his teens through the title role in the TV-seies "Bombi Bitt och jag" (1968) (mini). Between the years 1972-88 he was employed at The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, where he participated in "Vita rum" (1988), August Strindberg's "Ett dromspel" (1986) and "Master Olof" (1988). Simultaneously Skarsgard did outstanding film roles, noatably in Enfaldige mordaren, Den (1982) by Hans Alfredson. The fantastic performance gave him both a well-earned Guldbagge and Silver Berlin Bear. He portrayed the Skagen-painter Soren Kroyer in Hip hip hurra! (1987) and the Swedish ambassador Raoul Wallenberg in God afton, Herr Wallenberg (1990), both directed by Kjell Grede. Tacknamn Coq Rouge (1989) and Demokratiske terroristen, Den (1992) he played Jan Guillou's Swedish superagent Carl Hamilton. He also had the leading part in the Oscar nominated Oxen (1991) directed by the world-famous cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Skarsgard did his first (but small) role in an big American film with Unbearable Lightness of Being, The (1988). The role of Captain Tupolev in Hunt for Red October, The (1990) was at supposed to be biggest part in a Hollywood-film, but unfortunately it was cut down. His breakthrough instead came with Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves (1996) opposite newcomer Emily Watson. After that Skarsgard got several supporting roles in American films, such as in My Son the Fanatic (1997), Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting (1997) and Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997).
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Diane Lane
as Erin Glass
When this precociously beautiful teenager was selected to costar with Laurence Olivier in A Little Romance (1979) she landed on the cover of "Time" magazine. Her winning performance in that paean to puppy love launched a career that endured through adolescence and has flowered in adulthood. Good parts in Cattle Annie and Lit- tle Britches and Touched by Love (both 1980) alternated with run-of-the-mill pro- jects like Six Pack (1981) and Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1982). She was sullen in a trio of Francis Coppola films-The Outsiders, Rumble Fish (both 1983), and The Cotton Club (1984)-but as the decade progressed she began to take on increasingly offbeat and challenging parts. She was a rock star in Streets of Fire (1984), a stripper in The Big Town and a psycho's victim in Lady Beware (both 1987). She brought warmth and a wry sense of humor to her part as a hooker in the outstanding TV miniseries "Lonesome Dove" (1989). Recent credits include Vital Signs (1990), Chaplin (1992, as Paulette Goddard), the deadpan lead in the undernourished black comedy My New Gun (also 1992), Indian Summer (1993, as a young widow who blossoms during a summer camp reunion), Wild Bill (as Savannah Moore), and Judge Dredd (both 1995). Lane returned to TV in the 1994 miniseries "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" and a 1995 production of A Streetcar Named Desire (as Stella). She was married to actor Christopher Lambert, with whom she has costarred in Priceless Beauty (1988, as a genie who emerges from a lamp) and Knight Moves (1993).
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