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Overall Rating : 6/10
Directed By : Steve Antin
Angie Harmon (Law & Order (TV) )
Joel Gretsch (The 4400 (TV) )
Jordan Hinson (Eureka (TV) )
Bobby Coleman (Friends with Money)
Supplied By : Sony Pictures
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Oct. 4, 2006
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| PLOT Two orphaned children - Abby and Ethan - lose their parents in a tragic accident and are adopted by Eve and Raymond Goode, two seemingly ideal parents. But after the children move into the Goode's remote mansion, they discover that their new parents are not what they seem |
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| THE REVIEW In GLASS HOUSE : THE GOOD MOTHER, an indirect sequel to 2001's THE GLASS HOUSE, siblings Abby and Ethan Snow are left orphaned after both parents die in a tragic accident, their only know guardian, a friend whom is a Police Officer by the name of Ben Koch. Ben is single and lives alone in a one bedroom studio apartment, so he feels he is not the man to look after the children - instead he leaves it up to the adoption agency and they find Eve and Raymond Goode. Now the Goode's just one year after loosing their son in a drowning seem like the perfect folks to take the parent-less kids in - and on top of that, a 5 bedroom mansion is sure big enough, so the kids are thrilled. Thrilled at first they are, and everything is fine and dandy, that is until their new Mother, Eve starts acting very strange and becomes overly aggressive towards Abby alone. When Abby's curiosity gets the better of her, while snooping around in corridors of the mansion in which were deemed private by her new parents, she uncovers a secret that is quite shocking. It seems that Eve suffers from Munchausen's Syndrome and is violently i'll, the goods have adopted several young boys over the years and they all over ended up dead - Eve would get them sick one purpose, just for the sake of being the mother that nursed them, she thrives off of the attention received. Fearing the worst when brother Ethan is headed down the same path, the film really kicks up the suspense, as Abby and eventually a heroic Ben, fight for the safety of the Snows' before history repeats itself. In 2001 we were given a film, THE GLASS HOUSE, that was a PG-13 Thriller, that went theatrical but didn't make too much of a wave at the time. In my opinion, I really enjoyed the original, as I thought it was a pretty solid effort that relied purely on suspense for the most part - it is now a mere 5 years later, and here comes a direct-to-video sequel. Honestly, with so many sequels coming out as of late, no matter how much I enjoyed the original, I never would've guessed THE GLASS HOUSE as being a sequel candidate, but here it is nonetheless. The title has dropped the "The" from its name and it has been give a sub-title of THE GOOD MOTHER, all in attempt to set itself apart from being the obvious sequel, but one just can't deny this. If you read the official plot summary for the film, you'll notice that, yes the two films seem almost similar, and in every way - I myself thought this way and actually anticipated this to be some kind of remake of sorts. Well, with THE GOOD MOTHER we are brought into the story straight ahead, there is absolutely no depiction of the parents' death like the last, and instead of being family friends. the Goodes are just a seemingly "happy" couple looking to adopt. Here's where the film differentiates itself from the predecessor, instead of going for inheritance money from the children this time, one of the parents has a nasty disease in which she longs to feed. Eve has Munchausen's By Proxy, which in turn means that a caregiver ultimately gets a victim ill often times violently, on purpose to fill an inner need in themselves. What the Goodes would do is adopt a young boy(it is never explained why they only adopted Males) and ultimately "love them to death" literally - unfortunately for this adoption they also gain custody of the boy's sister and later on this shall cause tension, more so between Eve and the said sister, Abby. To tell the truth, on the outside, this film may appear to be the same thing over again, but actually it is not. I expected some lack luster effort on the part of Sony to make a quick cash-in on a previous theatrical release, but once you get into this film you find that it is a lot more than just a STV sequel. I was really surprised when I saw just how distinct this film was and it does have the ability to stand on it's own and if you have or have not seen the previous film, should make no difference at all. As far as comparison, i'd have to still side with the original here to be honest, but THE GOOD MOTHER is definitely not a push over film. First time Director Steve Antin and Writer Brett Merryman present a story with a look and feel that doesn't stay too far from the film before it, as it is edited with the seamlessness and continuous flow that of the original. But as with any film, no matter how good the production may be, there has to be that great acting to carry it home. I will admit that for this straight to video sequel, I expected the worst out of the acting, but in the end I was fairly surprised. Jordan Hinson of the new TV series EUREKA stars as Abby. Prior to this, I had yet to see Jordan in anything, but here as Abby, I must say that I am impressed....a native of my home state of Texas, I do wish her well in the future! Joel Gretsch as Raymond is the definition of "whipped" shall we say, he does everything his wife asks of him no matter how crazy it could be - in other words he is more like a reluctant accomplice. Also here we have Angie Harmon in a role, I have not quite saw her portray yet and that is of a psycho bitch. As Eve, Harmon pour it on, often making you double take her actions. In both GLASS HOUSE films, the adoptive mothers are both attractive but in comparing Angie Harmon's performance with Diane Lane, i'd have to pick Harmon as the clear winner, I don't know why but I found Eve to be more authentically sound. Overall, with this film, just when you think you are getting something cheaply unoriginal, it turns out it's as unoriginal as one may believe, in short... I was impressed to say the least. | ||||
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| GORE
METER 1.5/10 Like the original GLASS HOUSE : THE GOOD MOTHER, is low on gore yet high on suspense, however there in a scene in which Abby's arm is gashed open do to some broken glass. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 The score was nothing to special, it does stay along the lines of THE GLASS HOUSE though. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM GLASS HOUSE : THE GOOD MOTHER, is one of those films where you get a lot more than you had expected. I know for me personally, I didn't expect it to be as good as THE GLASS HOUSE, and to be honest, it isn't but it is awfully close....surprisingly, I do recommend! |
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