Shattered Glass

Grade: A

In 1998, it was uncovered that reporter Stephen Glass had fabricated stories published in “The New Republic.”

In the best film of the year to date, Writer/Director Billy Ray has turned in a brilliantly layered and complex parable on the manipulations, judgments and dysfunctions inherent in any office culture, an expose on media integrity for our time, and an excruciatingly honest and intimate portrait of how the need to be respected and appreciated can manifest itself in thoroughly different and often destructive ways.

Hayden Christiansen, so woefully bland and stiff as Anakin Skywalker in the last “Star Wars” installment, here is nothing less than mesmerizing as a young reporter gone very, very astray. His performance is so deeply personal -- likable and endearing and yet simultaneously pained and soulful -- that we believe in him long after it is still rational to do so and inexplicably find ourselves rooting for him long after that. It is an examination into how one justifies and even embraces what is false as though it were true, so desperate is the need, so profound the insecurity. Part charlatan, part desired charmer, part needy kid brother, we come to not merely sympathize but to empathize in what is the best performance I have seen this year.

As a less charismatic, more workmanlike, unfairly indicted editor, Peter Sarsgaard is also excellent as an everyman we suspect simply because it is somehow easier, judge simply because we have chosen to be manipulated into doing so. How as a culture we love those with striking blue eyes, an endearing smile and the ravenous desire to please, and how often we dismiss and even defame those who work hard and with integrity but who somehow fail to make us laugh and feel good about ourselves. The dialogue sparks, the supporting players are all first rate, and one leaves the film surprised at how intellectually intriguing and emotionally involving it all is. This is far far more than the cautionary tale one expects upon entering the theater.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0323944/