The Glass Castle
Lionsgate | Release Date: August 11, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
26
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
New York Daily NewsAriel ScottiAug 9, 2017
The Glass Castle is a family portrait that at its heart is a father-daughter movie, anchored by two outstanding actors. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonAug 10, 2017
A well-crafted drama about the comforts and insecurities of family life. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 10, 2017
Though he is on less certain ground during the narrative's moments of warmth than when things are grim, director Cretton manages it all successfully. With Woody Harrelson as its dependable lodestar, "The Glass Castle" never loses its sense of direction or its belief in where it’s going. Read full review
80
Time OutTomris LafflyAug 6, 2017
The richly built The Glass Castle—splendidly attentive to the details of the Walls's eclectic childhood home and elevated by Ella Anderson's performance as a young Jeannette—is on the overlong side, but it does right by a tough true story that begs neither contempt nor pity. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 9, 2017
The film’s third-act reach for a redemptive arc plays hollowly, and Harrelson teeters over the line into hillbilly affectation. Still, it’s not enough to erase the memory of Harrelson’s subtler moments, or to ruin what is an altogether worthy adaptation. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 9, 2017
Still the spectacle of this, of beautiful, sensitive children at the mercy of damaged adults — this is what we take from The Glass Castle. It’s a universal awfulness rendered with truth and detail, and somehow that’s enough. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghAug 10, 2017
For every crisis there’s a line of homespun wisdom, in every failure a universal lesson to impart. The film highlights each symbol, making explicit that which would be stronger left implicit, until Rex’s glass castle becomes an overbearing metaphor. Read full review
70
SalonMax CeaAug 10, 2017
Cretton did fictionalize parts of the story, adding dramatic embellishments and narrative tissue. But his greatest feat may have been telling the story in such a way that viewer doesn’t leave the theater going, “Oh, some of these stories are so extreme, they might be slight fictionalization.” They’re too consumed by the ride. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenAug 6, 2017
Even while gesturing toward a redemptive sacred altar, a default mode for parenthood in many mainstream movies, the director lets the messy realities stand. And his fine cast makes them ring true — the selfishness and neglect, the confrontations brutal and tender, the pained silences and, not least, the gusts of pure, jagged joy. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 10, 2017
The Glass Castle meanders toward its uplift ending, needing a few more of Cretton's clever time-jump edits, less rehashing the same personal failures. Not a bad movie at all, at times something more but seldom what it could be. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnAug 6, 2017
Even when the the music swells and people talk through their problems to reach unremarkable conclusions, there’s an undercurrent of emotional authenticity. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 13, 2017
By laminating Walls’ story with a Hollywood sheen, the narrative climaxes in an artificial and contrived manner. The penultimate scene is so obviously scripted that its inclusion is damaging. That’s too bad, because there are some effective individual scenes earlier in the proceedings. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryAug 10, 2017
The movie often undercuts itself by spelling things out rather than hinting at them, belaboring emotions and ideas to ensure that the audience understands what the characters are feeling and thinking. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldAug 9, 2017
Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton (“Short Term 12”) can’t quite find that magical balance that Walls hits, and tilts the story too far toward sentiment. Read full review
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