movie review - Shattered Glass
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
This is the movie that Hayden Christensen needed to redeem himself from his prominent participation in the loathsome Star Wars prequels. Having watched him stiffly make the best of the terrible writing in those movies, it was hard to see the actor. Here, he's still hard to see, but it's because he's disappeared into his role.
He plays disgraced 'journalist' (or fictionalist) Stephen Glass during his rise and fall at the American magazine The New Republic. A man driven by something - strangely, never really learn what - to excel at journalism even while bowing to family pressures to become a lawyer, he tries to keep up a steady stream of spectacular, entertaining articles. Eventually he goes too far, and writes something that is easily debunked by the reporters at a speciality magazine into whose realm he has spectacularly mis-tread.
Peter Saarsgard is one of my favourite actors, though he seems destined to a career such supporting roles as his one here and in 'Garden State' thanks to his deamenour/appearance. Here, he coolly plays the magazine's editor Chuck Lane, the opposite to Glass's flamboyant showman in every respect. A careful and dedicated writer, he resents the apparent ease of Glass's success, and seems to naturally pick up on the other man's lies.
The movie is based on the inexorable collapse of Glass's house of cards, and Lane's unforgiving outrage. It doesn't come off in an entirely engaging way, but instead seems to aim for authenticity. And it's the authenticity of the characters, their interaction, and their actions that make this story work.
Recommended.