I’d only seen photos of this poster when it came out in the theaters, but I knew Leelee Sobieski as Drew Barrymore’s nerdy friend from Never Been Kissed. But it never entered by “view queue.”
It came up on Netflix, and since I’m on vacation this week and had some time to spare, I thought, why not?
The movie starts off with a picture of idyllic suburban bliss. The Bakers are loving parents. The daughter, Ruby is a brooding but gifted artist, and the son, Rhett, is a rambunctious one. On the parents’ anniversary, they get into a fatal car accident which leaves Ruby and Rhett orphans.
But they’re taken in by the Glasses, friends of their parents. They seem nice at first, but that ominous score hits the soundtrack whenever Terry or Erin Glass reveals information about their parents.
(SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you plan to watch the film.)
As we peer deeper into their domestic life, we see that Terry’s made some bad financial choices that have loan sharks wanting his scalp, and Erin’s a doctor in the throes of drug addiction. As it turns out, they orchestrated the Bakers’ deaths so they could gain access to the trust fund left for the kids. And suspicious Ruby overhears a brutal argument between the two.
By the end, when the Glasses are dead, guess who steps in to take care of them. The bachelor uncle! The one who didn’t talk to his siblings for ten years (unexplained reasons). But he did give them his number in the event they need anything. The single one during the caregiving? That’s true to life!