A little girl named Jeannette who’s out to conquer the world, dreaming big dreams under the starry night sky and fighting the good fight every day. Her family, a funny bunch — her father, Rex, a self-appointed scientist who falls back to his alcohol when things go downhill; her mother, Rose Mary, a free spirit who chases her creative ambitions and who is as much a child as she is an adult; and Jeannette’s siblings — Lori, Brian, and Maureen — who are quiet, imaginative, and hungry for knowledge. The plot for the movie The Glass Castle may seem as far from reality as one can go, but for Jeannette Walls, it was and continues to be her life.

Going in, I expected the wacky ride, having read the original autobiography of the same name. I was sucked into the daily struggles of the Walls family — how hard it is to live without basic necessities, as well as being constantly kept on my toes as the family runs from various forms of the law, and how such a dysfunctional family still manages to retain such a sense of togetherness. Fortunately, I was not disappointed, as the movie delivered with its impactful and insightful plot.

One of the striking things about The Glass Castle is how heartfelt and brutally honest it can be. We can see how much the concept of family means to every member in the Walls household, and how intense it can be when the siblings seem to be the only voice of reason as their family sinks deeper and deeper into poverty. The pain that Jeannette goes through is almost tangible as she sews her father’s arm up after his “tumble”, then there’s Lori’s impatience at her father’s uselessness which later morphs into a kind of malice, Maureen’s confusion and desperation as the youngest and most gullible, and Brian’s headstrong attitude in his efforts to become the guardian of his broken family. We live with Rex’s insane plans that are insanity balanced precariously upon calculation, plans that do nothing to address the pressing issue of hunger and their unstable family situation. We empathize with Rose Mary’s seeming airheadedness that occasionally give way to bouts of crushing depression, a result of being confronted with the responsibilities of maintaining a family. The narrative doesn’t try to shy away from the hopelessness in which the family is entrenched in, somehow embracing it and morphing it into a true-to-life Hero’s Journey, in which things never seem to work out for our heroine.

Yet, the issues I found most disheartening about this movie pertain to its pacing. A sizable chunk of Jeannette’s childhood was omitted in favor of other important events later on in Jeannette’s life. And so, in the 127 minutes of run time, we never got to see Jeannette and her siblings interact with the other children in a school setting, nor the violent showdown between the Walls children and the antagonistic Billy Deel. We never experienced the memorable “Battle of Little Hobart Street”, nor the tight-knit relationship with her Grandma Smith that Jeannette reminisces about in her memoir. Although more emphasis is put on the family’s transition to city life in the Big Apple, the gap in the children’s backstory makes it harder to get emotionally invested in how they get over obstacles in their life in the present day. The movie also ignores how the book was written in medias res and opted for a linear plotline; the difference is obvious, as the former would’ve allowed viewers to compare Jeannette’s current living conditions and dispositions with her time with her parents in the miserable atmosphere in Welch later on. Other scenes are mashed together for plot convenience or in attempts to shorten a scene — yet another pacing issue.

Even with all the limitations in the medium of film, The Glass Castle doesn’t disappoint audiences. With its story filled with hardship and unity, it manages to overcome it shortcomings and presents itself as a strong film, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. If you love a good film about the true meaning of family, then this is the movie for you.