The Glass Menagerie Movie Review

                   The Glass Menagerie

                           A movie based on the novel by Tennessee Williams, directed by Anthony Harvey
                                                                                                                                             Dec.14. Gym
Major Characters:
Katharine Hepburn (Amanda Wingfield)
Sam Waterston (Tom Wingfield)
Joanna Miles (Laura Wingfield)
Michael Moriarty (Jim O'Connor)

In St. Louis, Missouri, there is a poor family with three members. Amanda is Tom and Laura's mom. Tom has a job in a warehouse, he is the biggest support to the family. The scene begins at Tom is walking outside at night. Tom sits and starts to read a newspaper, then the scene turns to the beginning of his memory. The whole family sits together to have dinner, dad's photo is hanged on the wall. Tom leaves the table because he can't bear Amanda likes to talk a lot. Tom always goes outside to watch movies or to smoke. However, Amanda realizes that Laura doesn't go to the typing school, she walks to the park instead of going to the school, which truly stimulates Amanda to find a gentleman caller for her, but Laura's response is no. Tom argues with Amanda again, at this time, Tom breaks one of the glass menagerie accidently, Laura is diestressed with that because it is the most precious staff of her. Meanwhile, Amanda asks Tom to notice if there is any person fits them. Jim is the person who is picked by Tom, moreover, he is the highschool classmate of Tom. Working in the warehouse, Jim is successful and gets a higher salary than Tom. Amanda is surprised by that, she wants to hold a solemn dinner for him. During that dinner, Jim is fascinated by pretty Laura, Jim is talks a lot, he names Laura as "Blue Roses" to stimulate her. Accidently, he breaks the most precious glass menagerie of Laura which is an unicorn. When both of them are trapped by the lovely atmoshpere, Jim is suddenly soberred by his truly situation and suddenly leave the house. Amanda is raged by Tom didn't get the information that Jim has engaged with the other woman. When the last aruging with mom, Tom leaves the home and walks on the street at night.

In my opinion, the theme of the movie is dreaming . Obviously, all of the characters are doing what they are not expecting and planning about. They live in the same room with the different goals to live. Amanda is always expecting to have a person to support this family all the time. Tom is expecting to have a life with adventure and living a nomadic life. Laura is waiting, waiting but not working to chase a gentleman caller. The exact environment of them is poor, it is obviously hard to support three different dreams. Fortunately, their dreams are relating to each other, even though their dreams have not came true at last because all of them have their own problems. Tom is a solid person and always be raged by the resistant voice. Tom can't bear his mom when she argues with him, the ending of that is escaping the home to find slience while talking to mom mildly. Amanda dreams a strong person who can support this family.However, she doesn't concern about the reason why two men are going to leave her away. She likes to hook her family memebers in the home but she is not pleasing them. Laura is dreaming to have a life without working and chasing a gentleman caller. Even if she knows this is impossible, the unicorn glass represents that her dream is out of the question. Their dreams are depicting a glorious future, but dreams are still dreams eventually.

The staging of this movie is normal. Mostly, the background is their home, it seems like the background is monotonous, but it expresses an idea that people are trapped by this home. The home is not small, at the scene they have dinner togerther, director zoom the camera then the vision of audience is getting smaller. The skill of that enhances the pressure during the aruguing, I felt the room is suddenly getting smaller than the other scene. The dance hall is mentioned in the story, but I have never guessed the dance hall is that close their home. When the Jim stays along with Laura in her bedroom, he is affected by the music, when he opens the door, the dance hall which is on the opposite almost taking the all the screen. The elements surrounded the home are highlighted by the director. The importance of their home is small when the other elements effect it such as dance hall and fire escape. When they close the door and everyone stay inside, the importance of the home is highlighted. 

As far as I concerned, Jim is derserved to be the best acter in this movie. In the scene he stays with Laura, I felt he makes a strong comparison with before and after he realizes that he has engaged with another woman. Before he notices that, he is overwhelmed by the time with Laura. He stands up and addresses his grand idea and encourages Laura to be positive to everything. I believe everyone is inspired by his passion while acting, the he has a lot of body languages, when Laura shares her glass menageries with him. He withdraws all of his action and becomes cautious, which represents he is really falling in that situation. Before I watching this movie, I was guessing how the scene of Jim breaks the unicorn will be. Actually, his acting suprised me that there is no any extra actions at that scene, Jim breaks the unicorn fluently with no prelude. The truth is, is should be normal because no one is expecting to see that in the real life. 

Overall, I think this movie stimulates me to consider if there are others possibilities to adapt this story. The plots of the story is straight forward except the recalling because the movie is almost following the original script from start to the end. However, this inspires me to extend this movie. Including the characters and backgrounds, it is compact to reveal the story totally. It is better to add more scene such as Amanda goes to the typing school than skip it and play at home.