Film Review: Shattered Glass

Director: Billy Ray

This 2003 drama based on the real life journalism career that Stephen Glass had in the mid-nineties. His time at The New Republican magazine was seen to be a success with more impressive and funny articles being published but with the release of a story on a hacker being hired by a big software company his lies slowly unraveled. This film soberly documents his life whilst working at the magazine and is a superbly subtle drama that plays out in a very real setting.

The world of journalism is a very factual place, if you read something on a news website or in a newspaper you generally believe it to be true due to the vigorous fact checking that is seen to be at work. This film opens up a world where you start to question how factual can an article really be? At some point you are going to stray from check-able facts to the opinion or view of a writer who may have seen or documented a news story. The actions of Stephen Glass were shocking especially the extent of his lies but he is not an isolated case and possibly paved the way for less factual news programming in later years.

Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen)

The acting within the film is first rate across the board, Hayden Christensen in the lead role is incredibly likeable yet incredibly ruthless when it came to covering his tracks and lying about what he had done. He was a great manipulator of people and this is cleverly shown in the film. Peter Sarsgaard is the pick of the bunch though as Charles Lane who takes over the role of editor after his predecessor, Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria), is fired and exposes the lies and half-truths that Glass told. He truly portrays a man who is torn about how to act on someone so popular and believable until it gets to the point where he can't do anything else. Sarsgaard finally delivers the final blow to Glass as his patience finally wanes, your satisfaction almost matches his when what you've been expecting all along finally happens. The drama within the film is never overplayed and could easily have been very glitzy like Hollywood likes to portray the media but it really shows it for what it is.

3.5/4 Superbly intriguing and subtly portrayed story