MariaLoathesDTWig 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.

leonblackwood Review: Although this movie is about a deep subject matter, I still found it quite boring and depressing. The whole tone didn't seem to change from the beginning to end and I didn't really get the moral of the story. Anyway, the film is about a young cab driver called John (Jack Reynor), who looks after his mother, Jean (Toni Collette) who is slowly killing herself with alcohol. One day he comes home from work to find her passed out in bed, so he quickly rushes her to the hospital so they can revive her. The doctors tell him that she is really pushes her addiction to drink, to the limit and that she really needs to get help so he decides to put her in a rehabilitation centre so she can get clean. His best friend, Shane (Will Poulter) decides to leave Dublin but John can't go with him because he looks after his disabled brother, who the mother has disowned, and he's worried about his mum's health. He then gets told that his mother can only stay in the centre for a little while but there is an opening at another home which costs quite a bit of money, so he has to take on a people trafficking job to pay for her stay. After his friend leaves, he's left all on his own to try and pull his family together, with no support from anyone. It's quite an emotional movie with some good acting, especially from Toni Collette but I was left feeling quite depressed. There isn't any major twisted or surprising changes to the storyline but you can't help feeling for poor John who just wants the best for everyone. The emotional scene at the airport, when Shane leaves, shows that John really did want to leave to better his life but he has a good heart and his family come first. Anyway, you do have to be in the right mood to watch this deep drama because it definitely isn't upbeat. Average!Round-Up: Jack Reynor, 23, must have thought that he had won the lottery when he got a role in the lead alongside Mark Wahlberg in Transformers: Age of Extinction but the movie received mixed reviews and it got panned by a lot of the critics. I personally didn't think it was that bad. He also starred in Vince Vaughn's Delivery Man and he stars in the upcoming Macbeth with Michael Fassbender so this small budget movie definitely hasn't damaged his reputation. The film was written and directed by Gerard Barrett who brought you the highly acclaimed Pilgrim Hill, which I personally haven't seen but at 28 years old, I can honestly say that he didn't do to bad job for his 2nd project. I think that he should have given the storyline a bit more substance, from a entertainment point of view but he put together an emotional movie which some people will be able to relate to. All of the cast was a perfect choice for the subject matter but I did find myself drifting off after a while.I recommend this movie to people who are into their emotional dramas about a young teenager having to look after his alcoholic mother. 3/10

Tom Dooley 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.

SLUGMagazineFilms Glassland is both a love story without sex, and a crime story without violence—a decided anomaly among just about every other film about life in an Irish slum. The love is between an overworked cabdriver named John (Jack Reynor) and Jean (Toni Collette), his alcoholic mother. As Jean drinks herself closer and closer to the grave, John's desperation to get his mother into a rehabilitation clinic despite their poverty leads him to question his own moral boundaries. Glassland is a melancholy, understated look at the combination of poverty and self-destruction that is so common in our society. Collette delivers a performance that jumps back and forth between snarling addict and penitent matriarch, and Reynor captures the pain and frustration of seeing a loved one spiral out of control. Despite the powerful performances by the film's actors, the film suffers from pacing issues that occasionally derail the film's momentum and muddle the narrative. Regardless, Glassland is a refreshingly modest take on issues that are typically addressed with more gratuitous filmmaking. –Alex Springer