Shattered Glass

Billy Ray, USA/Canada, 2003, 95 minutes

The New Republic Magazine is the in-flight magazine for Air force 1 and has been a fixture of American political commentary since 1914 when it was set up. In 1995 Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen) joined the staff of this prestigious magazine as a staff writer at the tender young age of 24. Glass tries to gain notoriety from his peers not by being hard nosed and cut throat but by being the perfect co-worker ... the nicest guy you could ever hope to meet. During his time with The New Republic Glass has 41 stories published, but, in his quest for fame Glass has taken a rather serious shot-cut.

Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn) writes for an on-line magazine. He wants to do a follow-up story on a story Glass wrote entitled "Hacker Heaven" but Adam has a little trouble chasing up the sources from the story - none of them exist.

"But there’s one thing about this story that does check out."

"What’s that?"

"There does appear to be a state in the union named Nevada."

As Adam and his colleagues dig deeper they discover that the fraudulent nature of this story isn’t an isolated incident - 27 of the stories Glass wrote for the New Republic were either partially or completely fabricated. Adam brings his findings to New Republic editor Charles "Chuck" Lane (Peter Sarsgaard) and soon Glass’s world begins to shatter...

Review by Jane Birch
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2005