Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Review: Shattered Glass

2003/PG-13/Drama

The true story of the boy who cried wolf, to the extreme. Shattered Glass tells the story of Steven Glass, a young New Republic "journalist" who fabricated at least part of (if not all of) 27 out of 41 articles that he wrote.

This film is remarkably compelling for a picture where 90% of the action takes place in the office for the magazine. Truth be told, it boarders on thriller as we watch the main character slowly drown in his own lies.

A modern Greek tragedy, we see the flaw in the character, we see how it destroyed his life (to a point) and hopefully remove it from our own. Not only that, but it allows us to have a brief glimpse into the mind of a pathological liar. We feel the betrayal of being lied to; We feel the disgust over the repetition of it; And yet, we sense the panic, we feel the walls closing in, and we get it. We understand Steven for a brief, disturbing moment.

The performances in this piece are fantastic (with one notable exception) which, with a movie that is nearly entirely interior, is completely necessary. Peter Sarsgaard won many well-deserved film festival awards for his work. Hank Azaria shows his range with a great non-comedic effort. Chloe Sevigny is both believable and empathetic as a heavily duped co-worker. Even Steve Zahn managed to create a non-zanny, realistic headhunter out for blood, but in a strangely likable way. Hayden Christensen, once again, manages to destroy a great role. Half hearted emotion and tired revisions of the same facial expressions harken back to the destruction of Anakin Skywalker. What Hayden needs to do is lose his quirky annoying manner of speaking. Oh yes, and take some acting lessons.

Another requirement of a character driven film is the music. Too big and the movie is trying to be something it's not; too small and it becomes too documentary-esque. This film got it just right.

The cinematography was astonishing considering the confines and repetition of the sets and all this proves a great debut for director Billy Ray. Amazingly, it avoids the feel of the two-headed monster, biggest first-director flaw "written and directed by." I've probably allowed him to slip by this distinction due to the brilliance, poignancy, and vision of the last few shots of the movie. To say more would remove the need for any readers to view the movie. However, while Billy Ray was able to prevent this movie from feeling like a "W&DB," it still could have been better if he'd handed his baby off to another director.

As this story was experienced by reporters, it is very well documented and much of the screenplay is verbatim from recorded conversations, notes from reporters, and articles from the time of the narrative.

Something is holding this movie back from being a great film. It could be the simplicity of the story-line, the phenomenally poor performance by the title character, or perhaps some intangible "W&DB" flaws that lie just below the surface. Whatever the reason, this film (while compelling, interesting, and true) only warrants:

3.5 out of 5 stars.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just Her Opinion: Ever see Beautiful Mind? Remember how you wondered who was telling the truth and why he was getting into so much trouble? Yeah. It was like that - only not as good. Definitely a compelling story - but you just wanted him to fess up at some point. Sad that it was a true story. I watched the interview with the actual Stephen Glass - he talked about how it was just a slippery slope he fell down. In the movie, I just wanted to shake him! We got this one from the library - I wouldn't recommend going out of your way for this one.

Dawn said...

I totally loved this movie and have watched it a couple of times. I think my opinion is more on track w/ His opinion here - and I'm motivated to watch it again to listen for the music. I love movies like this - suspense & drama minus the violence.

I didn't care for A Beautiful Mind that much and don't really see the comparison here.

I've said before on my blog - see Shattered Glass as a double-header with Breach - I think that one was also directed by Billy Ray.

Yeah, Hayden C is annoying, but Peter S more than makes up for it!!