Shattered Glass

A moral, not a moralistic, movie. It's also a bracing aesthetic achievement, creating a fictional version of a factual case that illuminates as it entertains.

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.

Whilst not an A grade psychological profile by any means, Ray has still crafted a meticulously enjoyable film. It’s as gripping as it is disturbing, and as well performed as it is mysterious.

Quite entertaining.

Smart, tightly coiled.

Fails on a couple of levels. It never really gives you a sense of the psychology, the root causes behind Glass' elaborate frauds... And since we don't know the why, the how becomes considerably less interesting.

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]

Having broken free of the Star Wars prequels, Hayden Christensen finally gets to show off his acting chops in this solidly entertaining biopic. He and co-star Peter Sarsgaard have a tense and engaging on-screen rapport with each other.

A truly compelling film about disgraced journalist Stephen Glass, **** Glass rides on the impressive performances of its cast and fantastic storytelling. The writing and direction from Billy Ray are both great and make for a fantastic film, but as I said, the real success here is the acting. Peter Sarsgaard steals the spotlight from the title character throughout with a fantastic performance as Chuck Lane, the new editor at The New Republic. However, Hayden Christensen is still phenomenal as Stephen Glass, while Chloe Sevigny, Steve Zahn, and Hank Azaria, are also all really good here. Billy Ray's debut feature, **** Glass is better than his follow-up to it, Breach, solely because this one never feels boring. Sure, the length helps with that, but it always manages to entertain, inform, and be an overall great watch. A very good film with A+ acting, **** Glass tells a cautionary tale about the loopholes that can be found in journalism.

The cast is what makes **** Glass the engaging film that it is. While it does somewhat follow the formula for a by-the-numbers biopic, it's the performances by a surprisingly captivating cast that makes the film so powerful. Special mention must be made of Hayden Christensen, who showed that he was much more than just a Canadian soap star / George Lucas' puppet. Christensen manages to effortlessly display the tension and terror of being "caught" in Glass' lies, and his portrayal of Glass' staunch refusal to ever admit to a lie is only amplified by Peter Sarsgaard's tenacious Chuck Lane, who only wants Glass to just admit to his mistakes. **** Glass isn't a perfect film, and may come off as boring to some, but if you enjoy performance pieces from an excellent cast, this film is definitely for you.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The film is flashy, but the filmmakers are not getting inside their character's brain at all and rather focus more on the dull procedures of editing in corporate magazines.