First thing I do when I wake up is go pick up La Presse on my porch. There's something stimulating about kicking off your day by reading about the state of the world. Journalists play an essential role, connecting us to the bigger picture, informing us about the things we can't experience first-hand. For this to work, though, there has to be an implicit trust between writer and reader. Just as you wouldn't read this if you didn't trust that I actually watch these movies and give you my honest opinion about them, you can't read a paper or a magazine if you don't trust that it's honestly written, edited and fact-checked.

"Shattered Glass" is about a specific instance where that trust was breached. In 1998, it was revealed that the much respected New Republic, "the in-flight magazine of Air Force One", had published more than a dozen stories in part or entirely fabricated, all under the by-line of one Stephen Glass. The way he's portrayed in the film makes him feel like a first cousin of Leo DiCaprio's character in Catch Me If You Can, except that this bullshit artist is resolutely uncool, dorky, whiny and annoying. Now, is that true of the real Glass, or is this an inevitable after-effect of the casting of Hayden Christensen, who took lousy acting to spectacular new lows as Anakin Skywalker in Attack! of the... CLONES?

Fortunately, Christensen is surrounded by solid actors who manage to keep the film gripping despite his limp lead performance. Hank Azaria portrays the late Michael Kelly, the editor who first took Glass under his wing, Chloë Sevigny plays a fellow reporter who feels protective in an almost maternal way of him, and Steve Zahn is the Forbes net journalist who discovers that Glass' sources don't seem to exist. Last but not least is Peter Sarsgaard in an award-worthy turn as then New Republic editor Chuck Lane. Through the movie he tries to stay calm, not to make accusations on the fly, to give Glass the benefit of the doubt and let him explain himself... But it becomes increasingly clear that's it's all a big thick web of lies, and Chuck is p-i-s-s-e-d. Oh, he keeps a cool front, but you just know this is eating at his sense of journalistic ethics, and to have this little weasel go on making excuses and half-truths that are more like non-truths... Pissed. This is all conveyed by Sarsgaard very effectively, almost all through slow-burn body language, but when he righteously explodes it's a killer moment.

The picture was written and directed by Billy Ray, making an assured feature debut. "Shattered Glass" is snappy without showing off, dense but not dry, thought-provoking but never in a way that feels forced. Ray takes this story and tells it simply enough, unconcerned with sentimentality or big statements, only effective storytelling. The newsroom milieu is very well recreated and it's interesting to hear and see all those little journalist things - even though the subject is what NOT to do, ultimately it's about preventing things like that from happening.

11/26/2003