Family loyalty, true love, and rollercoaster emotions are basic ingredients of a great movie but in The Glass Menagerie, reality seems different from appearance. The question that begs to be answered then is, has the themes in the movie been advanced in a manner that is entertaining?
The title “The Glass Menagerie” is a four actor memory play that was originally released in 1944 and written by Tennesse Williams and directed by Antony Harvey. The remake of the movie was released in 1973 with the actors being Katherine Hepburn as Amanda Wingfield, Sam Waterson as Tom Wingfield, Joanna Miles as Laura Wingfield, and Michael Moriarity as Jim O’Connor. The movie centres on a small apartment in St. Louis where Tom stays with his family. The play is introduced by Tom who stays with his family which consists of Amanda, a demanding and irritable mother and his sister Laura who is both physically damaged and emotionally impaired. Tom is the practically the breadwinner after Mr. Wingfield, Amanda’s husband becomes absent.
The summary of the movie is that Tom is trapped in a situation of tending to his family and seeking his own life somewhere else. The mother on the other hand wants Laura his daughter to find a suitor. Therefore, he asks Tom to look for a man for her daughter. Tom, a movie junkie brings his workmate Jim to their house where they have dinner. Laura then realises that Jim is her high school sweetheart who she has always loved. However, Jim disappoints her by announcing that he is already engaged which ultimately results into the breaking of the family.
The idea of the movie is depiction of tough decisions people make in their lives. For instance Jim makes a tough decision of not marrying Laura, which ultimately results in Amanda blaming Tom on everything. The unfair blaming helped Tom make the tough decision of following his life and bidding goodbye to his family. The tough decisions come about as everyone appears to be trapped in a fixed position, like the animals in a glass.
Overall, the production of the movie is not up to standard as everyone talks too fast to be believed. Hepburn is too noisy and her intonations and manner of pronunciation of words for a southern accent is completely misplaced. In addition, the unclear and indirect messages that the director tries to bring to the viewer makes it a high probability of getting bored with the plot of the movie before it ends. The verdict is that one can watch it if it is a must but it sure is not worth the time.
