With occasional clich‚s and slow-moving action and suspense, “The Glass House” is slightly entertaining with a predictable storyline and tolerable acting.

It tells the story of Ruby Baker (Leelee Sobieski, “Here on Earth”) and her little brother Rhett (Trevor Morgan, “The Patriot”) as their parents are suddenly killed in a car accident.

The two are sent to live with guardians chosen by their parents, a seemingly nice couple known as Terry and Erin Glass (Stellan Skarsgard, “Deep Blue Sea” and Diane Lane, “The Perfect Storm”).

Right off the bat, you notice that the Glasses are supposed to be Ruby’s parents’ best friends, yet she barely seems to know who the hell they are.

Quickly, the Glasses become the guardians from hell.

Ruby begins to learn that Terry, an in-debt and slightly horny businessman and Erin, a morphine-addicted doctor, are after the kids’ inheritance and insurance money from their parents’ death.

With her brother blinded by the wealth and gifts from the Glasses, Ruby, a mature 16-year-old, is in a new school and struggling on her own to find people to trust in this modern tale of every child’s nightmare.

Writer Wesley Strick and director Daniel Sackheim definitely took advantage of a large Hollywood budget to make this film.

The predominantly all glass house owned by the Glasses is pretty much pointless except for the fact that it’s the title of the movie.

The glass is supposed to represent all sorts of things in relation to the movie but it’s never touched on or even hinted to.

Instead, the lesson the movie preaches is that the truth is right under your nose, which is fine, except it has nothing to do with glass.

There are angles in this movie that begin to be touched on but are never finished. For instance, Ruby’s close relationship with her friends suddenly ends for no reason.

And she could have used their help many times throughout the movie.

It seems the filmmakers noticed this and threw in a last minute scene of her friends discussing it.

But all that does is remind you of the friends and distract you because Ruby hasn’t called them.

The whole reason the Glasses are trying to get the kids’ inheritance is because they owe all this money to some loan sharks. But wouldn’t it be easier to maybe sell their gigantic house or nice cars than try to kill innocent kids?

Sobieski starred opposite Chris Kline in last year’s “Here on Earth,” and her leading roles in “The Glass House” and the upcoming “Joy Ride” have propelled her to top-notch actress status.

It’s up to her acting to keep her afloat at this point, and her performance in “The Glass House” doesn’t really help her.

Whether it was awesome makeup or great acting, Diane Lane was probably the standout actress in the film as the drug-addicted and husband-dependent woman.

Much like Sobieski, this is her season, as she can also be seen opposite Keanu Reeves in “Hardball.”

Skarsgard plays a solid villain. His perverse looks and creepy, soft voice could scare any teenage girl.

Calling “The Glass House” a psychological thriller would be giving it too much credit.

Calling it the best suspense thriller of the fall season does it better justice.

Just keep in mind the fall season just started.

**

Kyle Moss is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale. 311 rules.