I give The Glass Castle three out of four stars for its true, honest depiction of the real-life Walls family. This film holds nothing back in showing the hardships of poverty, violence, death, and neglect that befell the family. Told through the perspective of young Jeannette Walls(Ella Anderson) and her older self(Brie Larson) looking back, this story is not a feel-good film. Although it is rated PG-13, I would not recommend this movie to anyone under fourteen due to the disturbing scenes (blood,violence,harassment, gore, etc.), some of which even I had to skip through. The story starts off by introducing four young siblings struggling to live with their two-faced, neglectful, alcoholic father(Woody Harrelson) the children have looked up to all their lives. Jeannette and her sister Lori desperately want to leave their father, but his promises of love and a better future in a glass castle keep them close. Eventually, the children have had enough of their father lying and double crossing them and leave to start new lives of their own.

The Glass Castle actually began as a memoir by bestselling author Jeannette Walls. Having read the book, I was appreciative of the movie’s consistency and referrals to the novel. It was extremely accurate, even including some of the same lines of dialogue in the film. As depressing and hard this movie is to watch, it heralds a strong message of the natural trust existing in a family and how worlds can shatter when it is threatened. If you are fourteen years old or older, I would recommend seeing The Glass Castle and, for two hours, living a life much different from your own.