So much average

It is a performances centric movie

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

12/8/17. This was actually a very good portrayal about what alcoholism does to a family. Reynor does a phenomenal job as the young adult son of Toni Collette's alcoholic mother at the verge of dying because of her excesses with drink. This is the first time I have seen such a sensitive portrayal about a son who is torn apart by having to be a caretaker of a parent with a severe substance abuse disorder. You can feel his pain as he dutifully does all he can to try and save his mother from herself. While totally depressing, this movie is worth watching to remind us that when people have a substance use disorder, they are not the only one in pain, it affects EVERYONE around them. Also, a good portrayal of those who provide services to these people and their families.

Jack Reynor and Toni Collette both do extremely powerful work in this study an Irish working- class lad in his early 20s trying desperately to deal with his mother's raging suicidal alcoholism. There are a number of deeply disturbing scenes between them, and other that are truly heartbreaking. It's not often we see two actors bring such complexity to what could easily have been familiar and forced. But there's something off in the film – the script tends to go wordy and oddly theatrical at times, although at others it's gratifyingly understated. (It's much better when it's showing instead of telling). And the interesting - but seemingly left field - story line/moral dilemma of the last 15 minutes seems weirdly stuck onto the far more interesting and coherent central plot. Still, it's very worth seeing for the performances (including Will Poulter as Raynor's only good friend), but it feels like an interesting film that sadly missed a shot at being a great one.

Both Toni Collette and Jack Reynor excel in their starring roles in this rather dark Irish drama. Collette portrays Jean, who is drinking herself to death, and will need a liver transplant if she can last long enough to see that day come. Reynor plays her loving and devoted son John, who's a hard working Dublin cab driver, but who is also struggling mightily trying to cope with his mother's addiction. After an honest intervention with his mother, she agrees to enter a short term government-run treatment facility, but in order to get her much needed longer term care, John will have to make some painful decisions as to how to get the money to pay for it all.Thanks to Collette and Reynor's superb performances, along with sharp writing and direction from Irish filmmaker Gerard Barrett, the characters and situations in the film came across to me as quite realistic. As the movie progresses, it lightens up somewhat from its very morose beginnings, and may very well tug at your heartstrings.All in all, I definitely wasn't thrilled with the film's rather ambiguous ending, but the movie, in general, came across to me as quite heart-felt, and offered a realistic look at the horrific effects of addiction on a person and those around them.

I've never ran across a movie seriously addressing the topic of alcoholism, that is until I saw Glassland. Most dramas will show you the drunk dad who drinks too much because that's what some bad dads do in western culture, or the stressed mum who drinks too much because the bad dad did something bad. Glassland shows the true ugly colour of Alcoholism as an addiction and an illness. Based in Dublin, John (played by Jack Reynor), mid-twenties cab driver, has two problems to deal with: trying to save his single mother, Jean (played by Toni Collette) from alcoholism all while being unintentionally tangled in human trafficking as a cab driver while it affects his conscience despite that he needs the money to pay for everything as his mother just stays home and drinks herself to death.The little weakness that I found in Glassland is that our main protagonist, John, is the strong silent type, the very very silent type. Now, when it comes to me, i'm a dialogue crazed audience, fan of Kevin Smith and Tarantino. Some people love these strong silent type characters but me, not my cup of tea. I had the same problem with Ryan Gosling in Drive and Only God Forgives (but Only God Forgives was a terrible movie as most will agree) yet The Passenger with Jack Nicholson worked for me somehow, it might had something to do with Maria Schneider... Anyway, getting back to the movie, as the viewer, I felt very distanced and snubbed by the movie and protagonist's long moments of silence where little things just happened and you're expected to just be very emotionally cunning to comprehend them (which I thought I did on some occasions). The movie itself is aware of it's own overwhelming silence and slow pace by giving John a friend called Shane (played by Will Poulter) who is a 20yr old adorably cocky lad who says "grand" a lot of time. But it really does feel like Shane was added arbitrarily just to give some colour to a film that clearly doesn't want to be colourful.The undeniable strength of this movie is it's fearless and raw truth about how alcoholism affects people and the people around them with heart grabbing scenes with Toni Collette giving amazing performances as she always does and Jack Reynor (despite me complaining that he's too quiet) is pretty damn good in some scenes and has a lot of potential as a young upcoming actor. Jean also isn't just portrayed as the drinking monster but as a likable and suffering individual, noticeably shown in a scene where she explains why she is to John based on her resentments about having given birth to a child with down syndrome which she disowned after her husband left all of them due to that child. The movie also shows and reminds us how the public health-care system in many countries is useless and broken when it comes to helping people with mental illnesses and addictions. A movie worth giving a shot.