Shattered Glass

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?

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. Christensen is fine, though we are never as charmed by Glass as his colleagues at The New Republic.

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.