movie review shattered glass

Shattered Glass

“Are you mad at me?” Stephen Glass asks. He’s like a puppy who’s made a mess on the carpet but knows he’s cute and all of the kids are crazy about him. The kids in this case are his fellow staffers at the New Republic, and the mess consists of 27 steaming piles of fabricated falsehoods that he deposited on its pages.

You may remember some of Glass’ stories. I know I did. I loved his piece about the young hacker who terrified corporations with raids on their computers, and then sold them his expertise to shoot down other hackers. This guy was so successful, he had his own agent. Then there was the gathering of Young Republicans at a Washington hotel, partying all night like a drunken fraternity. And the convention of the political novelties industry, with display tables of racist, homophobic and anti-Clinton T-shirts, bumper stickers and books.

Terrific stories. Problem is, Stephen Glass ( Hayden Christensen ) made them all up. Without realizing it, TNR had started publishing fiction. Magazines employ fact-checkers to backstop their writers, and they’re a noble crowd, but sometimes they check the trees and not the forest; it doesn’t occur to them a piece might be a total fraud.

The first puncture of Stephen Glass’ balloon comes from Adam Penenberg ( Steve Zahn ), who as a writer for the Web-based Forbes Digital Tool, was several steps down the ladder from the New Republic’s superstar. But when he tries to follow up on that rich hacker with his own agent, he can’t find him — or his agent, or the company that hired him, or his Web site, or anything. When he calls TNR, his query lands on the desk of Charles Lane ( Peter Sarsgaard ), the magazine’s new editor. Lane has enough to worry about: He has recently replaced the beloved Michael Kelly , he lacks Kelly’s charisma, and the staffers instinctively side with Glass against the cool, distant Lane.

When you hear about a case like this, or the similar fraud committed against the New York Times by Jayson Blair, you wonder how a world-class publication gets itself conned by some kid. Maybe the key word is “kid.” Maybe the hotshot newcomers generate an attractive aura around themselves, so that editors would rather jump on the bandwagon than seem like old fogeys.

“Shattered Glass,” written and directed by Billy Ray and based on a Vanity Fair article by Buzz Bissinger, relates the rise and fall of the young charmer in terms of the office culture at the New Republic, which is written by and for smart people and, crucially, doesn’t use photographs. (“Photos would have saved us,” one staffer notes, “because there wouldn’t have been any.” There were, however, photos with Jayson Blair’s stories — it’s just that the photographer could never seem to find him at the scene of the story.) The movie is smart about journalism because it is smart about offices; the typical newsroom is open space filled with desks, and journalists are actors on this stage; to see a good writer on deadline with a big story is to watch not simply work but performance.

Stephen Glass was a better actor than most, playing the role of a whiz kid with bashful narcissism. There is a fascinating and agonizing sequence during which Lane tries to pin down the slippery details of a Glass story, and Glass tries to wriggle free. Phone numbers go missing, files are left at home, phone calls aren’t answered, and as it becomes obvious to Lane that the story will not hold water, a kind of dread begins to grow. We like Glass, too, and we can see he’s trapped; he channels those nightmares we all have about flunking the big exam. There are a couple of times when Lane seems to have him nailed down and he squirms free with a desperate but brilliant improvisation, and we’re reminded of Frank Abagnale Jr ., the hero of “ Catch Me If You Can ,” who found an addictive joy in getting praise he did not deserve.

Glass’ fellow workers admire him because (a) he’s turning in work they would have died to have written, and (b) he doesn’t rub it in. Two of his most admiring colleagues, Caitlin Avey ( Chloe Sevigny ) and Amy Brand ( Melanie Lynskey ), feel protective toward him; like sisters, they worry that he works too hard, pushes himself, doesn’t take credit, doesn’t know how good he is. A more typical newsroom colleague is Andie Fox, played by Rosario Dawson over at Forbes Digital Tool; she senses that Penenberg is onto a really big story, wants a piece of it, and keeps trying to elbow in.

Because “Shattered Glass” is cast so well, with actors who seem to instinctively embody their parts, it’s worth another look at some of Billy Ray’s choices. Hayden Christensen, who makes Glass’ career believable by being utterly plausible himself, played young Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.” Steve Zahn often plays clueless losers and Rosario Dawson specializes in sex and action roles; not here. Chloe Sevigny is a versatile actress, but you might not have thought of her as a New Republic staffer until you see her here, and she’s pitch-perfect. Peter Sarsgaard has the balancing act as a new editor who happens to be right but is under enormous pressure to be wrong.

“Shattered Glass” deserves comparison with “ All the President's Men ” among movies about journalism, but it’s about a type known in many professions: The guy who seems to be pursuing the office agenda when actually he’s pursuing his own. Filled with a vision of his own success, charming and persuasive, smart, able to create whole worlds from fictions that work as well as facts, he has an answer for everything until someone finally thinks to ask the fundamental question: Is it all a fraud, right down to the bone?

In recent years we have seen vast corporations built on lies, and political decisions based more on wishes than facts. The engineers of those deceptions have all been enormously likable, of course. They need to be. We are saved, from time to time, not so much by the rectitude of the Charles Lanes as by the dogged curiosity of the Adam Penenbergs.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Peter Sarsgaard as Chuck Lane
• Luke Kirby as Rob Gruen
• Hank Azaria as Michael Kelly
• Hayden Christensen as Stephen Glass
• Melanie Lynskey as Amy Brand
• Steve Zahn as Adam Penenberg
• Chloe Sevigny as Caitlin Avey
• Rosario Dawson as Andie Fox

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• Parents Say 4 Reviews
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Common Sense Media Review

By Nell Minow , based on child development research. How do we rate?

Journalistic scandal story best for older teens.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this movie has some strong language and references to drug use and prostitutes. There are tense and upsetting scenes, including a suicide threat.

Why Age 13+?

Social drinking, smoking, reference to drug use.

Some strong language.

Reference to prostitutes.

Tense scenes, including a suicide threat.

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• Parents Say (4)
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Based on 4 parent reviews

Great Movie with Moral, would be fine for 12+

Not for watching in school, what's the story.

SHATTERED GLASS is the story of one of the biggest scandals in the history of journalism. In 1998, the editor of the tiny but prestigious New Republic found that star writer Stephen Glass had fabricated dozens of stories. The publication's youngest writer, Glass (Hayden Christensen) dazzles everyone with charming compliments and self-deprecation. We know from the beginning that Glass lied, and the movie has enough respect for the complexity of human motivation not to try to explain why. So, it is a story of how the lie was uncovered, but it is less a detective story or even a rise-and-fall hubris tale than a story about how, in the end, journalism really is about telling the truth. An editor for a small, far-from-prestigious website tosses Glass's story about a teenage hacker to Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn), one of his reporters, asking why he didn't get that story himself. Penenberg begins to dig and finds out that only one fact in the Glass story checks out: "There does seem to be a state in the union named Nevada." Glass and Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard), his editor, find out what it is like to be under the microscope instead of peering through it.

Is It Any Good?

Christensen does a decent job, though we are never as charmed by Glass as his colleagues at The New Republic . Although the movie's introduction makes it clear that Glass is a liar, screenwriter/director Billy Ray ( Hart's War ) manages to keep us unsettled by not always letting us know what is real and what is imagined by Glass.

Maybe it is just being forewarned that makes Glass seem less ingratiating than just grating. Ray has a good feel for the culture and atmosphere of the community of Washington journalists -- overworked, underpaid, and a little too smart and inbred. There are splendid performances by Sarsgaard, Zahn, and especially Hank Azaria as the late Michael Kelly.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why Glass lied and why people wanted to believe him.

Movie Details

• In theaters : October 30, 2003
• On DVD or streaming : March 23, 2004
• Cast : Chloe Sevigny , Hayden Christensen , Peter Sarsgaard
• Director : Billy Ray
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Lionsgate
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 90 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : language, sexual references and brief drug use
• Last updated : September 25, 2024

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FILM REVIEW

FILM REVIEW; A Young Writer's Ambition, With Loyalty and Betrayal

By A. O. Scott

• Oct. 31, 2003

I have to admit that of all the worthy and interesting movies opening this fall, ''Shattered Glass'' was the one I was most looking forward to. I also have to admit that the keenness of my anticipation made me a little suspicious -- of myself and of the movie, which opens today in New York and Los Angeles.

The film, written and directed by Billy Ray, deals with the case of Stephen Glass, a young writer and editor at The New Republic who, in the spring of 1998, was discovered to have fabricated, in whole or in part, more than two dozen articles he had published in that venerable journal of opinion.

As everyone discussing ''Shattered Glass'' is bound to observe, there are obvious parallels between Mr. Glass's behavior and that of Jayson Blair, the reporter who was found last spring to have invented or plagiarized portions of at least three dozen articles in The New York Times.

But even if the memory of the Blair scandal were not painfully fresh, the earlier debacle would still exert a morbid fascination among journalists of a certain age and temperament, the kind of people who spend way too much time surfing media-gossip blogs and Web sites and who are generally obsessed with tracking the behavior of the fish in the neighboring bowls. Those people (I know a few of them) are insular and self-obsessed enough as it is, and the last thing they -- oh, all right, we -- need is a movie that amplifies and feeds upon that narcissism.

''Shattered Glass'' does that well enough (at least I thought so), but it is also, I am happy to report, much more than a knowing, insidery docudrama about a magazine that has long prided itself on its inside-the-Beltway knowingness. (The Clinton-era New Republic is described several times, with minimal irony, as the ''in-flight magazine of Air Force One.'')

The movie is a serious, well-observed examination of the practice of journalism, and if it takes note of the vanity and obsessiveness that are among the vices of the profession, it also acknowledges (and perhaps romanticizes) the hard work and idealism that are among its virtues.

But Mr. Ray, a screenwriter (''Hart's War'') making his debut as a director, has grasped that the themes of this story -- ambition, loyalty, betrayal and deceit -- are not confined to journalism. He has constructed an astute and surprisingly gripping drama not only about the ethics of magazine writing, but also, more generally, about the subtle political and psychological dynamics of modern office culture.

Glass, played by Hayden Christensen, is clearly motivated by a hunger for glory. At work, he is constantly receiving calls from important publications, which he shrugs off with transparent false modesty. (''Are you talking to Policy Review?'' someone asks him. He replies with affected nonchalance, ''It's probably nothing.'') But he also, and perhaps more deeply, has a desperate need for the esteem and affection of his colleagues.

His moments of greatest triumph seem to come not when the magazine publishes his fanciful articles -- about young Republican debauchery at a Washington hotel, about a trade fair devoted to trinkets commemorating the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, about a teenage hacker with an agent and a million-dollar software contract -- but when he pitches them at editorial meetings, working his audience like an anxious nightclub comedian. He feeds on the laughter and amazement, and his showboating is accompanied by displays of childlike insecurity.

''I probably won't even do anything with it,'' he says after rolling out one of his too-good-to-be-true story ideas, waiting a beat for the praise and reassurance that are sure to follow. ''Are you mad at me?'' he asks whenever someone raises even the smallest question about his work, and of course no one ever is. For a while at least Glass's eagerness to apologize for his small lapses deflects attention from his ever more extravagant lies.

Mr. Christensen, best known for his light-saber work as the young Anakin Skywalker in the latest ''Star Wars'' episodes, finds the perfect balance between creepiness and charm.

It is easy to see how the rest of the staff -- including the magazine's beloved editor, Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria) and a lightly fictionalized senior editor named Caitlin (Chloë Sevigny) -- are taken in by Glass's brilliant little-brother act.

Midway through the film Mr. Ray ingeniously and almost imperceptibly shifts the story's center of gravity from Glass to Charles Lane (Peter Sarsgaard), who took over after Mr. Kelly's abrupt dismissal and who brought Glass's journalistic felonies to light after an Internet journalist named Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn) began raising questions about the hacker article.

Mr. Lane, who now writes for The Washington Post, is the hero of ''Shattered Glass,'' and it should be noted that he also worked on the film as a paid consultant. But Mr. Sarsgaard's performance is hardly a simple embodiment of nobility. At the beginning, Lane seems cold and a little priggish, aloof from the warm, competitive camaraderie that binds the rest of the staff together.

As Lane starts to investigate Glass's misdeeds, he is suspected of pursuing a vendetta against writers loyal to Kelly. As we begin to see Glass through Lane's eyes, the film's mood darkens and its pace accelerates; what had started as a sharp workplace comedy becomes a clammy, vertiginous psychological thriller. The only false note comes near the end, when the magazine's moment of shame is rather too eagerly transformed into an occasion for self-congratulation.

That lapse only underscores the movie's overall meticulousness. A more showily ambitious film might have tried to delve into Glass's personal history in search of an explanation for his behavior, or to draw provocative connections between that behavior and the cultural and political climate of the times. Such a movie would also have been conventional, facile and ultimately false. Mr. Ray knows better than to sensationalize a story about the dangers of sensationalism. ''Shattered Glass'' is good enough to be true.

''Shattered Glass'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has some profanity and one sexually suggestive scene.

SHATTERED GLASS

Written and directed by Billy Ray; based on a Vanity Fair article by Buzz Bissinger; director of photography, Mandy Walker; edited by Jeffrey Ford; production designer, François Séguin; produced by Craig Baumgarten, Adam Merims, Tove Christensen and Gaye Hirsch; released by Lions Gate Films. Running time: 90 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.

WITH: Hayden Christensen (Stephen Glass), Peter Sarsgaard (Charles Lane), Hank Azaria (Michael Kelly), Chloë Sevigny (Caitlin Avey), Melanie Lynskey (Amy Brand), Steve Zahn (Adam Penenberg), Rosario Dawson (Andie Fox) and Cas Anvar (Kambiz).

• Lions Gate Films

Summary A study of a very talented - and at the same time very flawed - character. It is also a look inside our culture's noblest profession, one that protects our most precious freedoms by revealing the truth, and what happens when our trust in that profession is called into question. [Lions Gate Films]

Directed By : Billy Ray

Written By : Buzz Bissinger, Billy Ray

Shattered Glass

Where to watch.

Hayden Christensen

Stephen glass, chloë sevigny, caitlin avey, adam penenberg, peter sarsgaard, charles 'chuck' lane, rosario dawson, melanie lynskey, hank azaria, michael kelly, lewis estridge, simone-élise girard, catarina bannier, chad donella, jamie elman, aaron bluth, kambiz foroohar, linda e. smith, ted kotcheff, marty peretz, george sims, michele scarabelli, ian's mother, terry simpson, critic reviews.

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SHATTERED GLASS

(BB, PC, Ho, LL, S, AA, DD, M) Moral worldview upholding journalistic ethics, wherein young reporter makes up false, politically correct article about crude, pot-smoking young conservatives, but movie fails to question the liberal mentality that would make up such a story in the first place, and homosexual reference where man says another man kissed him; 15 obscenities including two or three “f” words, six strong profanities, and three light profanities; no violence; sexual references include reporter invents a scene of young conservatives making rude fun chasing a heavyset woman, condom reference, man says another man passionately kissed him, and prostitutes mentioned in passing; no nudity; alcohol use and drunkenness during fictitious wild party; smoking and marijuana use depicted; and, bearing false witness and phony corporation, lying, and inventing stories for magazine.

GENRE: Drama

More Detail:

SHATTERED GLASS tells the true story of a young reporter working at a famous liberal political magazine who is caught inventing false stories under the noses of his editors.

The movie opens with reporter Stephen Glass regaling the office at the New Republic, the leading liberal magazine in the United States, with wild funny stories that he’s uncovered. Both his bosses and co-workers thoroughly enjoy the stories and the magazine dutifully prints them under his byline.

Stephen’s world begins to unravel when his story about computer companies buying off computer hackers leads an editor at an Internet site on computers to ask his star reporter, Adam Penenberg, why he didn’t get the story. Perplexed, Adam starts checking the alleged facts in Stephen’s story and begins to smell a rat. He asks the New Republic for information about the people and organizations mentioned in the article. When Stephen’s new editor, Chuck Lane, asks Stephen to provide the information, Stephen’s edifice of lies starts crumbling.

Hayden Christensen, who plays the young Darth Vader in the new STAR WARS movies, delivers an excellent performance as the affable, obsequious, deceitful Mr. Glass. His portrayal shows that Glass loved to be the center of attention, but was eager to please and became overly apologetic when even slightly confronted. Peter Sarsgaard is wonderful as the increasingly irate editor, Chuck Lane.

SHATTERED GLASS tells a sobering, enlightening tale of journalistic deceit and journalistic integrity. When the staff applauds Mr. Lane for taking a moral stand against the popular, slippery Mr. Glass, it makes viewers want to stand up and cheer as well. A major flaw in the movie, however, is its inability to connect the political dots. The movie fails to consider the fact that some of the false stories filed by Mr. Glass seem to be liberal hit pieces. The liberals at the New Republic apparently failed to question some of Mr. Glass’s more fanciful lies, because they fed into liberal prejudices against conservatives and capitalists.

Please address your comments to:

Tom Ortenberg, President

Lions Gate FIlms

4553 Glencoe Ave., Suite 200

Marina del Rey, CA 90292

Phone: (310) 314-2000

Fax: (310) 396-6041

Website: www.lionsgatefilms.com

SUMMARY: SHATTERED GLASS tells the true story of a young reporter working at a famous liberal magazine who is caught inventing false stories. SHATTERED GLASS is a sobering, enlightening, well-acted story of journalistic deceit and journalistic integrity, but it contains some foul language and unresolved political correctness.

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Metacritic reviews

Shattered glass.

• 88 Premiere Glenn Kenny Premiere Glenn Kenny Against very steep odds, writer-director Billy Ray and company have, in telling the real-life story of fictionalizing "New Republic" writer Stephen Glass and his downfall, produced the most entertaining inside-journalism movie since "All the President's Men."
• 75 Rolling Stone Peter Travers Rolling Stone Peter Travers The film never digs deep enough into the pressures on Glass from his family, his peers and himself to achieve psychological depth. But as an inside look into the hothouse of journalism, it's dynamite.
• 75 ReelViews James Berardinelli ReelViews James Berardinelli May be light when it comes to psychological questions, but its detailed accounting of Glass' actions makes for fascinating viewing.
• 70 The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen Although the substance could have used more visual style, Ray tells an uncluttered story and draws strong performances from his actors.
• 70 Variety Todd McCarthy Variety Todd McCarthy Credibly and absorbingly relates the tale of journalistic fraud perpetrated by young writer Stephen Glass at the New Republic five years back.
• 70 The A.V. Club Scott Tobias The A.V. Club Scott Tobias Shattered Glass simply sinks its teeth into a juicy story, never better than when Sarsgaard methodically paints the sniveling Christensen into a corner.
• 70 L.A. Weekly Ella Taylor L.A. Weekly Ella Taylor Far and away the strongest performance in Shattered Glass is Peter Sarsgaard’s.
• 60 New York Magazine (Vulture) Peter Rainer New York Magazine (Vulture) Peter Rainer Writer-director Billy Ray is so eager to be fair-minded about everything and everyone that you can't help thinking he's a patsy, too. If he directed a movie of Othello, he'd probably try to make us feel warm and fuzzy about poor, misunderstood Iago.
• 50 The New Yorker Anthony Lane The New Yorker Anthony Lane As a whole, Shattered Glass is carefully constructed, intently played, and shot with creepy calm. It is also, by a considerable margin, the most ridiculous movie I have seen this year. [3 November 2003, p. 104]
• 50 Village Voice J. Hoberman Village Voice J. Hoberman The Sarsgaard slow burn is only marginally more compelling than the Christensen simper; like its subject, the movie is self-important yet insipid.
• See all 38 reviews on Metacritic.com
• See all external reviews for Shattered Glass

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Shattered Glass Reviews

I did watch it at least twice in a row and then listen to the dvd commentary instead of doing literally anything else with my life...

Full Review | Nov 10, 2020

Hayden Christensen and Peter Sarsgaard in the two main roles turn in career-best performances as their respective characters' descent/ascent is so cleverly played out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 3, 2020

What Billy Ray's confident debut lacks in situational dramatics...it more than makes up for in the central performance of young Hayden Christensen...

Full Review | Mar 16, 2020

Just as I was starting to wonder not only if I did really like Steve that much but also if it were possible that I was not even meant to, a story of his is challenged.

Full Review | Feb 1, 2018

Being a film about fibs, it is desperate not to tell any. Big mistake.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2017

It's intriguing stuff that's heightened by the efforts of a seriously impressive supporting cast...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 27, 2016

Ray propels the lamentable tale along at a brisk clip, is clear in his storytelling and mercifully avoids moralizing or self-congratulation.

Full Review | Apr 27, 2011

Journalistic scandal story best for older teens.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 28, 2010

Using unexpectedly suspenseful character drama, "Shattered Glass" elevates itself to the upper echelon of journalism films. Unless there's ever a 2x4 famous enough to warrant biopic treatment, this will likely be Christensen's only great performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 1, 2010

Perhaps the best exploration of American journalism this past decade has seen.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Sep 7, 2010

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

Full Review | Original Score: A- | May 10, 2009

An excellent movie with a suspenseful and engrossing story...

Full Review | Apr 29, 2009

Writer-director Ray has a no-fuss style that is quietly, thoroughly gripping.

Full Review | Nov 1, 2007

Not a particularly cinematic story, but outstanding performances justify this production

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 14, 2006

[An] adept, often incisively funny recounting of the Glass debacle...

Full Review | Feb 9, 2006

cautionary tale for future generations

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jun 26, 2005

Ray stages the film not as a mystery but as a case study in all-consuming denial and professional and psychological self-destruction.

Full Review | Original Score: B | May 4, 2005

A meticulously constructed slow burn drama whose strength lies in not only its fascinating true story, but the filmmakers attention to detail which makes it a lazily paced but nevertheless worthwhile investment of your time.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 2, 2005

As the net begins to close, you may find it impossible to suppress your delight at Glass's loss of composure. Why? Perhaps because you won't recall being quite so irritated by anyone, in any movie, ever.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 7, 2005

...even when faced with shame and mortification, some people will find it within themselves to do the right thing.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jan 29, 2005