Shattered Glass: the best movie of 2003 you didn't see

I finally watched Shattered Glass, which had been on my must-see list since its release in 2003, over the weekend. It's a gem of a film, one that did things right, and the things it did right are things Hollywood blockbusters (especially biopics) don't even aspire to. I watched The Aviator weekend before last, and while it was fun, it wasn't breathtaking in the way Shattered Glass was. I'm glad I did see it, and on the big screen at that, but I have no burning desire to see it again and will not be rushing out to by the DVD. Simply put, Mr. Scorsese and his all-star cast did not achieve the brilliant end result of SG's writer-director Billy Ray (who?) and his ensemble of low-key players, some of whom are best known for turns in very bad movies. It's not that I can single out Scorsese's film for major flaws, either-- it was long, but it didn't seem long, it was well-acted, it didn't descend into psychobabble-- it just wasn't a great movie, and I think Shattered Glass is one.

I also think Shattered Glass may be a better film than All the President's Men, which has always been one of my top fave films. It's shorter, tighter, less suffused with solemn import-- on one level, it's almost a black comedy. Now, a film about cracking the Watergate case may be permitted more self-importance than a film about busting a slimy little weasel of a "journalist," but a recent re-viewing of ATPM wasn't the thrill ride I remembered it being. Shattered Glass has the thrills: it's more suspense film than biopic, and it generates that suspense even when you know going into the film that the title character, disgraced journo Stephen Glass, is going to take a fall. That's a neat trick, and Ray and company pull off the even neater trick of making the protagonist (Glass) and antagonist (Glass' fellow reporter at The New Republic, Chuck Lane) switch roles halfway through the film. Kudos to Hayden Christensen (Glass) and Peter Sarsgaard (Lane) for pulling that one off.

As I mentioned above, the actors here are not big stars: none of that Dustin Hoffman/Robert Redford or Leo DiCaprio/Cate Blanchett jazz here, and no Jude Law turning up in a bit part either. Those who are 'names' are playing against type: dig Rosario Dawson as a businesslike writer for Forbes Digital Tool. The characters themselves are mostly confined to the 'real' people involved: TNR personnel Glass, Lane, plus editor Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria) and owner Marty Peretz; Forbes people Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn), Kambiz Foroohar (Cas Anvar), and Andie Fox (Dawson). Note that Foroohar's ethnicity isn't white-washed for filmic purposes; it makes for a refreshing touch of realism, and shows up the contrast between the lily-white world of TNR and that of Forbes' online mag.

Two characters are lightly fictionalized, though: Glass' real-life confidant Hanna Rosin is Americanized, Anglicized, and made blonde; her character "Caitlin Avey" is played by Chloe Sevigny, and you can read a bemused review of the film by Rosin's real life husband here. Another friend and sometime co-writer of Glass' receives a sex change, as Jonathan Chait becomes "Amy Brand" (played by Melanie Lynskey, who apparently looks just like Chait!). That one's creepy, given the way Glass kinda-sorta hits on Amy in the film while protesting his heterosexuality.

Outisde of the two composite characters mentioned above, Shattered Glass stays with the facts of the story; Ray's script was based off a (apparently definitive) Vanity Fair article. Ray didn't need to alter the timeline or radically alter characterization to make a successful film, which is another refreshing change from the fact-mangling one expects from a biopic. Even when the factual story is film-worthy in itself, filmmakers can rarely resist the opportunity to make mindboggling changes. I submit VH1's execrable Monkees flick Daydream Believers and the fun but flawed Beatle-pic Backbeat as examples of bizarre, unnecessary fictionalizing. Nor is SG saddled with a "message" more weighty than the basic story can bear. The message here is simple: journalism does not equal making stuff up. Editing a publication does not equal defending your errant writers at all cost. No excuses. That's a darned good message.

One reviewer compared watching this film to the experience of a good public stoning. I'd almost want to see a similar flogging of Ruth Shalit (TNR's other 'kiddie sociopath'), Jack Kelley, Mike Barnicle, Jayson Blair, and the rest of the plagiarist-fabulist hall of shame, but the Glass saga is probably the most cinematic of the lot. The gripping cat-and-mouse interplay between Forbes and TNR, between Glass and Lane, probably can't be duplicated elsewhere. Still, it'd be nice to see La Plagiarista and the rest flayed onscreen.