A Brilliant Conflict

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

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.

I bought this movie on DVD on Amazon UK a few weeks ago and I have no regrets ! It's a small but pretty impressive indie from Ireland with top-notch acting. Will Poulter is funny and believably boy-next-door, his accent flawless; Michael Smiley brings hard-won compassion as an alcohol counselor and the always magnificent Toni Collette gives once again a splendid performance. But this is Reynor's film and he holds the screen like a pro – always thinking, tapping, twitching with silent fury. John's a good guy but he looks like he wants to kill someone. That no such eruptions occur makes Glassland's power all the more remarkable. Well done.A must see.

John (Jack Reynor) is a taxi driver in Dublin; he works the graveyard shift and comes home to his mother. She is addicted to alcohol and one day he arrives home to find her overdosed in bed. This is the wake up call he finally realises for him to make an attempt to save her from herself.The thing is he is going to need money to help her if it is going to work and that is when he turns to an easier way to make money and this will take him places he never really wanted to go.Now this can be a difficult watch in places. Toni Colette as his mother is just spellbinding in her portrayal of a woman who has lost everything in her life except 'the silent friend' that comes bottled and makes things feel right if only for a short time. Reynor plays this with a straight forward sense of frustration beyond the limits of duration – but with a heart full of love. There are some sub plots too but this is essentially a relationship film with some twists. It is though a very well made and realised film that will do no harm to the careers of anyone involved – completely recommended.

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.