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Plot
Shattered Glass tells the true story
of Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen), a writer for the respected New Republic and also a freelance writer who would do anything
to get his name in print. He creates imaginary scenarios including people, places, organizations, and telephone
numbers. All goes well until a writer from an online magazine (Steve Zahn) and his co worker (Rosario Dawson) investigate
a piece Glass wrote and discover nothing he wrote exists. Glass's enigmatic and child like personality gets almost everyone
on his side (like his co workers Chloe Sevigny and Melanie Lynsky) except for Glass's editor, Chuck (Peter Sarsgaard),
who suspects that Glass had doctored all of his articles, and he is almost right. Shattered Glass is not some boring
journalism story, it's interesting, it never drags, and the acting is great.
Rating: PG-13 for language, sexual references,
and brief drug use.
Cast
Hayden Christensen: Stephen Glass
Peter Sarsgaard: Chuck Lane
Chloe Sevigny: Caitlin Avey
Steve Zahn: Adam Penenberg
Melanie Lynsky: Amy Brand
Rosario Dawson: Andy Fox
Hank Azaria: Michael Kelly
Pictures (click)
Quotes
Glass: If I threw a party where all we did was play monopoly, would you come?
Glass: I don't
know what you're talking about, okay. Those are all real people.
Lane: They are?
Glass: Yeah.
Lane: Look at me...
and say that again.
Glass: Those are all real people.
Glass: I'm really
sorry.
Lane: I wish you would stop saying that!
Glass: Are you
mad at me? (repeated line).
On Hayden's Perfomance
Hayden's performance
in Shattered Glass has to be his best one yet. After seeing the interview with the real Stephen Glass, his performance stunned
me even more. The squeaky voice and mannerisms show he can do impersonations dead-on. If anyone doubted him before, they
won't after watching this movie.
On a less serious note, Hayden
is also very cute in this movie. From the moment we meet him, we love him. For example: "If I through a party where all
we did was play monopoly, would you come?" This was also Stephen Glass's approach at getting his peer's approval and I think
Hayden did a great job at doing this.
Hayden did a wonderful job
at doing the innocent thing when he was being accused of something and he did a great job of portraying Glass telling his
lies.
Even though we loved
Glass in the beginning of the film, by the end of the film, we just want to slap him.
After his performance in
Attack of the Clones, I think disbelievers in Hayden's talent will be taken aback by the performance he gives here.
The DVD
The DVD extras include only two special features:
an audio commentary by the Director and a 60 Minutes interview with the real Stephen Glass, which is fascinating.
Although it doesn't offer much, the movie is so good
I highly suggest you buy it on DVD.
Links
Read the article written by Adam Penenberg (played by
Steve Zahn)
Read "Hack Heaven" the article that got Stephen Glass screwed.
* this link goes to the "Story Archive"
on Adam Penenberg's site. Scroll down to "Lies, Damn Lies, and Fiction" and under that click on the Read "Hack Heaven"
written by Stephen Glass.
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