Shattered Glass Film Review
Director: Billy Ray.
Cast: Hayden Christensen, Peter Skarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Steve Zahn and Chloë Sevigny.
Here is Yellow Magpie’s Shattered Glass film review.
Nearly all human activity revolves around simplifying the complex. Not only is it part of our social fabric but it is also intrinsically linked with how we think as individuals. Everyday we take in a huge amount of information. We are bombarded by sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations. We have hundreds of thoughts every waking minute.
In order to avoid being completely overwhelmed, we whittle away the unnecessary distractions and concentrate on things that are important to us. We have to reduce the highly complex into something more simple, something that we can grasp.
Shattered Glassis a film that deals with a profession that revolves around simplification, journalism. It is a film which highlights the gaps and problems that this reducing process creates. And ultimately, it is a film about trust and what occurs when trust is broken. Sometimes in the quest to accept our own judgment, to avoid having to live in a world that makes us uncomfortable, we deny the obvious. 
Based on real events, Shattered Glass is a retelling of a saga that tore at the heart of journalism in America. One of the most prestigious magazines in the United States, The New Republic was famous for being the publication of choice aboard Air Force One during John F. Kennedy’s tenure as president. However, what was to become The Glass Affair almost destroyed its renowned reputation.
Shattered Glass centres around the highly talented and relatively young, Stephen Glass. The leading star of The New Republic, Glass writes insightful pieces that have been praised for highlighting hypocritical behaviour by respected institutions.
Despite all his obvious talents, Glass, played by Hayden Christensen, harbours a dark secret that could not only destroy his employers but cause serious repercussions for journalism across the world. After finding a weakness in the rigid fact-checking of The New Republic, he sets about making up news features.
Because his pieces largely involve anonymous people that he supposedly interviews, all that is required to give authenticity to his work are handwritten notes. These he tailors to suit his own needs.
‘Glass is a difficult personality to pin down, a hotchpotch mix of contradicting characteristics.’
Creating fictitious characters and imaginary circumstances, Glass blends these with factual people and real happenings. He seamlessly, and dishonestly, interweaves fact and fiction into a strange, fantastical hybrid.
Hayden Christensen excels in the role of Glass, a complex and challenging character for any actor to portray on screen. Glass is a difficult personality to pin down, a hotchpotch mix of contradicting characteristics. Charismatic, creative, talented, childish, manipulative, narcissistic, and amoral are just some of the adjectives that one could use to describe him. Christensen performs the whole gamut of emotions admirably in one of the strongest performance of his career so far.
‘This need is overwhelming and is driven by insecurity, an insecurity that is present in us all.‘
Glass is no different from any other journalist. Like all newspaper writers, he needs to receive validation for his work. This need is overwhelming and is driven by insecurity, an insecurity that is present in us all. It’s a constant underlying feeling of not being good enough, of being incomplete.
The difference between Stephen Glass and other people is that he is in extreme denial about his shortcomings. There is a rift, a chasm, between his own high expectations and what he really is. In order to bridge the gap between his expectations and his reality, he invents his own stories. He creates his own unique dramas and casts himself as the architect and chief of his own narcissistic fantasies.
With the aid of a charismatic personality, Glass manages to convince his colleagues that his wildly implausible stories are true. However, not everyone is convinced.
‘Lane is unafraid to ask difficult questions that have potentially horrific consequences for the magazine.’
Recently instated editor for The New Republic, Chuck Lane, portrayed by Peter Skarsgaard, is the one figure in the office that queries Glass’s work. Unlike the previous editor, Michael Kelly, played by Hank Azaria, Lane is unafraid to ask difficult questions that have potentially horrific consequences for the magazine. Questions that the young staff have chosen not to ask.
One of the strangest aspects of The New Republic is the age of the staff involved. With a median age of 26, its journalists are incredibly young, too young in fact. The publication is crying out for someone with savoir faire, and Lane appears to be the only character in the film with this. Glass’s co-workers never question his increasingly improbable and implausible stories.
Apart from Lane, no one goes, ‘hold on, wait a minute…’. With all the staff disarmed by Glass’s magnetic personality, the publication lists carelessly towards being destroyed from within. Although Lane is only in his 30s, he is far more experienced than most of the publication’s staff. Through the course of the film, Lane proves that there are no substitutes for experience and wisdom tempered by years of craft.
Shattered Glass is a lesson in life, it is far easier to destroy than it is to create. One of the oldest publications in America, The New Republic has seen some seminal moments. From publishing noble laureate, and Pulitzer-prize winning author, William Faulkner’s first work, to becoming, as already mentioned above, the de facto publication aboard Air Force One, the magazine is synonymous with quality.
‘He gently peels back layers of complexity and gradually draws in the viewer allowing us to peer into the perplexing world of the mind of Stephen Glass’
However, despite the years it took to carefully build up its earnest reputation, one act of carelessness almost ruined its good name. Director Billy Ray does a wonderful job controlling the way the film unfolds. He gently peels back layers of complexity and gradually draws in the viewer allowing us to peer into the perplexing world of the mind of Stephen Glass without ever getting too heavy-handed.
The acting is detailed and adept. Skarsgaard and Christensen’s performances perfectly capture the nuances of the situation. However, they also go one step further and do something which is altogether more difficult. They manage to harness their character’s inner turmoil and considerately allow it to bubble and reach the surface.
In the process they allow the viewer to glimpse at an unfamiliar world. A perilous world in which apathy and inaction leads to injustice while empathy, courage and conviction lead to heroism and bravery.
‘It also alludes to the untold damage that can be inflicted when no one is watching journalists.’
Shattered Glass raises some interesting questions and is an essay on the merits of having a prudent and judicial media. It also alludes to the untold damage that can be inflicted when no one is watching journalists. Glass may have distorted the media to fulfill his narcissistic fancies, however, it could just as easily have been someone else doing it for far more sinister reasons. It may seem amazing that Glass got away with his creations for so long.
Ultimately, it has less to do with Glass himself but rather the choices of the staff of The New Republic to believe in him. Perhaps this can be partly put down to age or young ideals but it must be mostly attributed to carelessness.
Journalism works on the basis of reduction. A highly complicated event is given a digestible narrative. The challengingly complex is given meaning and made understandable. This is the invaluable role that journalism plays. Reduction and simplification.
However, sometimes something goes wrong and not enough attention is paid to the details. The obvious is ignored and a Stephen Glass slips through the net.
Highly Recommended
Shattered Glass is highly recommended and you can obtain it here from Amazon.
Amazon.co.uk
For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom, you can access Shattered Glass here.
Amazon.ca
For those who live in Canada, you can obtain Shattered Glass from here.
Amazon.de
For Germany: Shattered Glass.
Amazon.fr
For France: Shattered Glass.
