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Shattered Glass (2003)

Director:
Billy Ray

COUNTRY
USA/Canada

Genre
Drama/Biographical
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Shattered Glass

RUNNING TIME
94 minutes

Producer:
Craig Baumgarten
Adam Merims
Gaye Hirsch
Tove Christensen
Screenwriter (based on the article by H. G. Bissinger):
Billy Ray


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Stephen Glass Hayden Christensen ½
Charles Lane Peter Sarsgaard ½
Caitlin Avey Chloë Sevigny
Andy Fox Rosario Dawson -
Amy Brand Melanie Lynskey ½
Michael Kelly Hank Azaria
Adam Penenberg Steve Zahn
Lewis Estridge Mark Blum -
Catarina Bannier Simone-Élise Girard -
David Bach Chad Donella -
Aaron Bluth Jamie Elman -
Rob Gruen Luke Kirby -
Marty Peretz Ted Kotcheff -

 

Review

The remarkable story about up-and-coming The New Republic journalist Stephen Glass, who in 1998 was revealed to have been fabricating several of his feature articles, is brought to the screen more with a fascination for how this could happen in a reputable magazine than with the human side of the scandal. Writer Billy Ray (Color of Night, The Hunger Games) makes his directorial debut and instils some nice formulaic touches, such as a parallel narrative presentation: one classically told, the other consisting of Glass telling his story to a media class after-the-fact. Hayden Christensen plays Glass, and is able to give him a similar air of eerie charisma and mystique that Matt Damon gave the title character in The Talented Mr. Ripley. What Christensen's character lacks, however, is any kind of depth, which is arguably a conscious choice on Ray's part. He leaves Glass' personality and psyche up in the air, either because he wants to surround him with as much mystery as possible, or because he doesn't want to demonize him more than what the story already does – or both. It works, but it also makes you watch Shattered Glass from a distance. This is a cerebral film, not an emotional one. But it's certainly worth a watch. Peter Sarsgaard stands out among a whole bunch of fine supporting performances.

Copyright © 13.10.2020 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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