Shattered Glass (2003)
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 166
Fresh: 151 | Rotten: 15
A compelling look at Stephen Glass' fall from grace.
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 33 | Rotten: 6
A compelling look at Stephen Glass' fall from grace.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 21,660
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Movie Info
Before Jayson Blair made headlines for his plagiarized New York Times reporting, Stephen Glass defamed the weekly current events magazine The New Republic with a series of eye-catching, entertaining, and completely fabricated stories. Now Glass' trail of lies gets the big-screen treatment in writer/director Billy Ray's Shattered Glass, featuring Hayden Christensen in the title role. The film chronicles Glass' time at the magazine in the late '90s, when his colorful coverage of a hedonistic Young
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Cast
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Hayden Christensen
Stephen Glass -
Peter Sarsgaard
Chuck Lane -
Chloë Sevigny
Caitlin -
Melanie Lynskey
Amy Brand -
Hank Azaria
Michael Kelly -
Steve Zahn
Adam L. Penenberg -
Rosario Dawson
Andie Fox -
Cas Anvar
Kambiz Faroohar -
Ted Kotcheff
Marty Peretz -
Mark Blum
Lewis Estridge -
Simon Elise Girard
Caterina Lane -
Chad E. Donella
David Bach -
Jamie Elman
Adam Bluth -
Luke Kirby
Rob Gruen -
Russell Yuen
Emmit Rich -
James Berlingieri
Jason
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All Critics (177) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (159) | Rotten (15) | DVD (29)
Does a superb job in presenting four of the five journalistic 'Ws' of its story: the who, what, where and when. It fails, however, on the essential 'why' of the tale.
Top CriticWhat are we to learn from this? Not the broad lesson that every line of work has its share of charlatans: The script is way too pious to swallow such a generic pill. And not anything important about Glass, since there's no real character examination.
A sober, wry and often riveting account of an infamous moment in journalism.
Shattered Glass has the skill and power to make you squirm.
As directed by Billy Ray, the film has an exceptionally tight focus and a fascinating story to tell.
Journalistic scandal story best for older teens.
Using unexpectedly suspenseful character drama, "Shattered Glass" elevates itself to the upper echelon of journalism films. Unless there's ever a 24 famous enough to warrant biopic treatment, this will likely be Christensen's only great performance.
Perhaps the best exploration of American journalism this past decade has seen.
Journalistic ethics are scrupulously explored in this crystal-clear dramatization of real-life "New Republic" feature writer Stephen Glass's meteoric rise and rapid dissolution over falsified articles he wrote for the publication during the mid '90s as a
An excellent movie with a suspenseful and engrossing story...
Not a particularly cinematic story, but outstanding performances justify this production
cautionary tale for future generations
Ray stages the film not as a mystery but as a case study in all-consuming denial and professional and psychological self-destruction.
Audience Reviews for Shattered Glass
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Stephen Glass: All I know is I was here. The conference was right here. That's why the Restils didn't stay very long; because it was such a dumb place to squeeze into.
- Stephen Glass: And, over and over: Did I do something wrong? Are you mad at me?
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- Michael Kelly: Steve, I have to ask you this: did you ever cook a piece when *I* was your boss? Did you ever lie to me? The story about the mini bottles, was that true?
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- Stephen Glass: Hey I threw a party where all we did was play Monopoly would guys come?
- Caitlin: Could I be the little shoe?
- Stephen Glass: Of Course.
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- Stephen Glass: I didn't do anything wrong! C
- Chuck Lane: I really wish you'd STOP SAYING THAT!
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- Caitlin: That's what this is of course, I mean what are you gonna do Chuck? Pick us all off one by one every one that was loyal to Mike, so you have staff that belongs to you? Is that the kinda magazine you wanna run?
- Chuck Lane: Catlin when this thing blows there isn't gonna be a magazine anymore! If you wanna make it about Mike make it about Mike I don't give a shit. You can hate me you can resent me but come Monday morning we're all gonna have to answer for what we let happen here we're all gonna have apology to make! Jesus Christ do you have any idea how much shit we're about to eat? Every competitor that we took a shot there gonna pounce and they should. Because we blew it Caitlin. He handed us fiction after fiction and we printed them all as fact. All because we found him entertaining. It's indefensible don't you know that?
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- Stephen Glass: I didn't do anything wrong!
- Chuck Lane: I really wish you'd STOP SAYING THAT!
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The true story of a young journalist who fell from grace when it was found he had fabricated over half of his articles.
REVIEW
A fascinating glimpse into the brain of a sociopath, all the more interesting as it's based on real events from 1997. Christensen has the lead role as the so-called journalist Glass, a far cry from his Anakin character of "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith." He hides behind a pair of thick glasses and adopts a strange, sickeningly sweet persona that, of course, hides a manipulative psychotic. That's the trick the actor manages to pull off - he has to get the audience to believe in and understand both sides of the character. A chronic liar, his fabrications become so involved and complex that they in themselves form a fascinating thread in the story. Most of Glass's tales have a small kernel of truth, but the majority is all made up. So he invents additional bogus material and fake evidence to back up the original fabrications, such as websites & voice-mails. It's like seeing a whole separate made up world created and co-existing with ours, all springing from Glass's warped mind.
Glass also reminds me of more dangerous social misfits, such as serial killers, so a couple of scenes towards the end especially carry an extra chill. When Glass is found out, another interesting process which unravels his lies, Christensen shows us he really worked out the character. His desperation and seeming despair is alarming to behold and fits in with the character we saw in the first half of the film. The detective work done by Steve Zahn's character to begin finding out what's untrue is also very interesting to observe, and then Glass's own editor (Sarsgaard), new on the job, follows up on the groundwork laid out to finally deduce what has sort of been in front of them the whole time. Sarsgaard, a very good actor, is a standout juggling new pressures, mixed feelings and finally resolve to get at the truth. The film captured the real truth of what happened back then, based on what we can see of the real Glass on the "60 Minutes" interview.