Families are complicated. The Glass Castle, starring Woody Harrelson as a father who wavers between inspirational encouragement and alcoholic abusiveness, could stand to be more so. Adapted from Jeannette Walls’ memoir, the film means to acknowledge the deep love we can have for dysfunctional family members, even if we’ve suffered abuse at their hands. Yet even as it depicts the endangerment and neglect that defined Walls’ childhood, the movie continually downplays the trauma, ultimately ending as a hagiography (complete with laudatory archive photos) that feels like an extreme form of denial. Brie Larson, as the adult Jeannette, reteams with her Short Term 12 director Destin Daniel Cretton, though she mostly wears the implacable mask of repression.
