Shattered Glass Review:

One of the best films of 2003, Shattered Glass is the gripping and compelling true tale of the infamous journalist Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen). During the mid-90’s, Glass was one of the most sought out journalists in America due to his intriguing stories of politics, outlandish characters, and unordinary situations. Glass was a contributing writer to such publications as “Rolling Stone,” “George,” and “Harper’s Row,” but his home magazine was the Washington D.C. publication “The New Republic.”

After reading one of Glass’ stories involving a blackmailing young hacker, Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn) attempts to write a follow-up for Forbes.com, but learns that none of Glass’ sources are true. In steps The New Republic’s by-the-book editor, Chuck Lane (Peter Saargard), who slowly begins piecing together Glass’ continuos fabrications of his stories. With the loyalty of the magazine’s other writers in Glass’ corner, Lane is faced with losing the trust of his staff if he fires Glass over the incidents. As Lane continues to find more falsehoods, Glass continues to give him more lies as this powerful story unfolds itself.

Writer/Director Billy Ray makes a commendable debut with balance and precise delivery of this story. Hayden Christensen gives his best work as the weasel Glass and Peter Saargard should have won an Oscar for his multi-layered performance as Chuck Lane.

This is a vital film that has an underlying power in it, that all involved in the world of journalism should see. The interpersonality of the characters is splendid and their interactions drive the tension of the film. Shattered Glass is a real gem.

Extras

• Audio Commentary by Writer/Director Billy Ray and Chuck Lane

This is one of the most insightful commentaries ever unleashed on a DVD. Writer/Director Billy Ray takes you through each scene, moment, and gesture with the characters. He also tells about the ample amount of research involved with all aspects of the production. The real Chuck Lane explains the adaptation, and points out many scenes that mostly happened the way Ray portrays them. However, being a adapted film, Lane touches on the scenes that were blended or put together to move the story along, and admits that though that some of the scenes are not totally reflective of the situation, the emotions and choices of the actors reflect what they or he were feeling during that time or moment. Both do not just rattled on, they give concrete information about the film and the real story, which makes this film even more appreciative.

“60 Minutes” interview with Stephen Glass

Another great addition to the DVD, is the real “60 Minutes” segment about Glass and his fabrications. The piece takes place 5 years after Glass was caught making up stories. Glass himself is apologetic and talks exclusively about his continuos lying. Lane is also interviewed as are other co-workers, where none of them believe his remorse; just that he is lying more. The question is raised that Glass conducted the interview just to promote his book, which is a fictionalization of himself. Looking at this segment is also evident that Christensen and Saargard both nailed their roles as the two opposites Glass and Lane.

Trailers
• Shattered Glass
• Girl with a Pearl Earring

Overall

Shattered Glass is a solid film for any movie lover to add to their DVD collection. It is a drama, however, that is driven by its characters and plot. It is dialogue driven, which might turn some viewers off that are looking for a sound quality enhanced DVD with great sound effects. The acting is great and the story itself is shocking, but one that everyone, especially writers should know. The two features on the DVD are very admirable follow-up insights to the film and the real Stephen Glass and Chuck Lane. However, there are only two features, a story of this nature could have had a lot more features with perhaps a documentary segment or more interviews with the real life people involved, like Adam Penenberg. This is more or less a DVD that you buy for the film itself, not necessarily for the features or the audio/video quality.

The Film: A-
Video Quality: B
Audio Quality : B-
Extra Features: B+

DVD as a whole: A-

Joseph C. Tucker

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