Shattered Glass

 3.5/4

Starring: Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Zahn, Rosario Dawson, Melanie Lynskey, Hank Azaria

Rated PG-13 for Language, Sexual References and Brief Drug Use

What's so diabolically clever about "Shattered Glass" is how it subverts the normal rules of fiction.  In this movie, the guy we like is the villain and the guy we hate is really the hero.  I'm not talking about the likable scoundrel versus the stick in the mud.  This is different.  Stephen Glass is a vile, contemptible creature who deserves nothing less than his career to be shredded while his nemesis Chuck Lane is so cold, so detached and so merciless that the mere sight of him generates terror and dread.  Yet we like and care about Stephen and loathe Chuck.  Because the actors playing Stephen and Chuck are so good, the film feels like its always primed to explode.

Stephen Glass (Christensen) is the most beloved journalist at The New Republic, "the in-flight magazine of Air Force One."  Of course, you wouldn't know it by just looking at him.  He's shy, filled with self-doubt and sensitive.  But he has the best stories, and gets the scoops that everyone else wishes they had.  From drunken parties (complete with prostitutes) by the Young Republicans to a hacker with his own agent, Stephen has it all.  It's his last story that gets him into trouble.  An internet journalist named Adam Penenberg (Zahn) wants to do a follow up piece, but can't find any of Stephen's sources.  Stephen's defense is his new editor, Chuck Lane (Sarsgaard), who initially defends his young, innocent writer.  But things don't seem to add up, and Chuck gets suspicious.  Soon he realizes that it isn't that a stressed-out writer fudged a few facts.  It's that he made up the story outright.

Hayden Christensen may never be known as a great actor, but in the right role he can be terrific.  The actor plays Glass with an "aw, shucks" type of anti-charm that makes him impossibly endearing.  He says all the right things and is a master at playing people's sympathies.  He's very good here.  As impressive as his performance is, he's outshone by his co-star Peter Sarsgaard.

Perhaps it took someone as cold and unfeeling to catch Glass.  Someone who keeps so many walls around him and is so immune to sympathy and humanity.  We all know someone like Lane, who is so cold and direct that even their presence generates fear.  Peter Sarsgaard, an actor who never gets the attention and praise he so justly deserves, plays him like a teacher who is asking why your homework is late and makes it clear that he won't accept excuses no matter how desperately you try to justify it.  This is a performance that should have gotten Sarsgaard a long overdue Oscar nomination, but did not.

They're surrounded by a gifted supporting cast, even though none of them have as much do do.  Chloe Sevigny and Melanie Lynskey are rock solid as his editors, who fawn over him like big sisters.  Steve Zahn tones down his penchant for foolery as the inquisitive Adam Penenberg.  Hank Azaria also turns in an interesting performance as Michael Kelly, the previous, more humanist (and more popular) editor.  The scene where he explains to Stephen what kind of trouble he is in offers insight into the differing managerial styles of Chuck and Michael, but also as to how Stephen was able to get away with his crimes for so long.

"Shattered Glass" is much less dry than it sounds.  It has all the tension and suspense of a top-flight thriller, and it features two terrific performances.  I have a few minor quibbles with how writer/director Billy Ray chooses to end things, but they are small blemishes on this tremendous dramatic thriller.