FrightFest Review: The Glass Man

• 25th Aug 2011

Andy Nyman plays Martin Pyrite, a man who has recently been fired from his job for what seems like suspicious circumstances at best on the boss’ part. In his panic he doesn’t tell his wife (Neve Campbell) and he leaves the house each day as if going to work but really heading out to nowhere.  As the bills start to stack up, it becomes increasingly difficult to hide the situation from her.

 One night he is paid a visit by a debt collector (James Cosmo) who offers him the chance to wipe his slate clean, but at what price?

Nyman, a well established stage and film actor gets what seems to be his first worthwhile lead on screen. And he is magnificent in the wormlike role of a man afraid of his own shadow, and too cowardly to admit to the wife he loves that he can no longer support them.

Campbell tries her hand (or voice) at a British accent, and fares okay, if going for that clichéd upper class English girl voice we all love so much from the likes of Keira Knightly. Cosmo is a towering presence, both physically and mentally – switching between calm glares and vocal outbursts.

It’s very much a dramatic story that lets tension mount the further in. The piano and string score helps things along, but sometimes the camera work reeks of cheap video (the lighting sometimes also not helping) which makes the film look more like a TV movie. It’s largely down to the edited pace and Nyman’s performance that makes this an enthralling watch.

Steven Hurst