Blog Directory CineVerse: Throwing stones in Glass's house

Throwing stones in Glass's house

Monday, June 30, 2025

What’s the greatest film about journalism since All the President’s Men? It could be Good Night and Good Luck, Spotlight, or The Post. Or it could very well be Shattered Glass, a 2003 drama film written and directed by Billy Ray that chronicles the true story of Stephen Glass with The New Republic. Glass, portrayed by Hayden Christensen, is an ambitious young writer whose talent and charm mask his growing pattern of deception. The film also features Peter Sarsgaard as Charles Lane, the magazine’s editor who begins to suspect and investigate Glass’s stories, and Steve Zahn as Adam Penenberg, the reporter whose curiosity ultimately exposes the fabrications. Through these characters, Shattered Glass delves into the ethical dilemmas of journalism and the impact of Glass’s downfall on his colleagues and the media world at large.

To listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of Shattered Glass, conducted last week, click here (if you get an error message, simply refresh the page).


The picture is interestingly bookended by what we eventually learn is an imagined classroom sequence in which we believe Glass is sharing words of wisdom with students in a high school journalism class. This device allows Glass’ character to voiceover narrate the story while also demonstrating the compelling clout of his voice and crowd-pleasing presence.

Fascinatingly, the lead character shifts from Glass to an unexpected protagonist: Lane, who suddenly becomes Glass’s editor midway through the narrative and whom we follow more closely as Lane tries to expose the truth. Shattered Glass transitions to somewhat of a detective story in its second half, especially as Lane and the Forbes reporters command more screen time. Ray said: “As fascinating as Stephen Glass is by the end of the movie, people would want to kill themselves – you just can’t follow him all the way.”

The movie is also bifurcated visually in that the filmmakers primarily employ handheld cameras in the office scenes within the first half, but shift to a more stable and traditional camera approach in the second half.

You don’t have to be a journalist or writer to appreciate the dilemmas faced by both Glass and Lane. If you’ve ever worried about cheating on a test or assignment at school or getting caught in a major lie by your parents, or if you’ve ever been in a position of authority over an employee or child you suspect of major wrongdoing, you can relate to the palpable sense of dread that seeps in.

Curiously, the film introduces angles that could make for interesting subplots but quickly abandons or ignores them: Publisher Marty Peretz is presented as an autocratic villain worthy of more screen time, but his character is forgotten about after he fires editor Michael Kelly. Additionally, Glass reveals that his parents are pressuring him to become a successful lawyer and that his brother helped him falsify some of his sources; Exploring these relationships could have made for interesting scenes and side plots. On the other hand, the filmmakers are wise to trim out any fat, feature only the necessary characters, and stick to the heart of this story: Glass’ fall from grace.

Even though it was a box office failure, Shattered Glass benefited from fortuitous timing because it was released at a time when the media was still reeling from the Jayson Blair scandal at The New York Times, a strikingly similar and equally captivating case where a once-celebrated reporter was exposed after someone scrutinized his work closely. Blair’s downfall came from fabricating and plagiarizing parts of his articles.

Christensen surprises viewers with this role, proving he could act at a time when he was mocked for being a wooden thespian hand-picked by George Lucas to star in his poorly reviewed Star Wars prequels.

Shattered Glass is a powerful cautionary tale about the price of cheating to get ahead, of how a house of cards eventually crumbles, and how hubristic deception eventually yields karmic repercussions. Glass prides himself on secretly being a master fabulist who, through emotional exploitation and Machiavellian means, fleeces his bosses, peers, and readers into believing purely fabricated stories that earn him plaudits and notoriety.

It’s also an unnerving meditation on the cult of personality and the power of charisma and charm to manipulate others. Glass uses self-deprecating modesty, winsome humility, and an entertaining gift of gab to make himself popular and trustworthy. He’s the consummate bullshit artist: a pathological liar who carefully covers his tracks, uses disarming lines like “Are you mad at me?”, and knows how to game the system for his own gain.

Another takeaway? Telling the truth is hard work. This film shows how maintaining journalistic truth and integrity is challenging – a task that requires scrupulous vetting, stepping on feelings, and risking profit, prestige, and personnel when necessary. Lane, who replaces Michael Kelly, his popular but pilloried predecessor, is treated by his disgruntled staff with subtle resistance and skepticism. He’s the “bad cop” to Kelly’s “good cop.” But Lane’s detail-driven approach proves correct, as he uncovers Glass’s charade thanks to his unwavering commitment to asking questions and conforming to journalistic ethics. We see how Lane’s pursuit of the truth in this endeavor causes him to become more disliked and even jeopardizes the future of the publication. But the contrast he strikes with Glass is crucial, reminding us that veracity, honesty, and accuracy are essential to maintain public trust in the press, even at the expense of entertaining copy. Per Roger Ebert: “Peter Sarsgaard has the balancing act as a new editor who happens to be right but is under enormous pressure to be wrong.”

Lastly, consider the irony behind the fact that a venerated print publication was taken down a peg by upstart Internet journalism. Today, most people get their news online, and print journalism is in danger of becoming extinct.

Similar works

  • Ace in the Hole (1951) — Billy Wilder
  • All the President's Men (1976) — Alan J. Pakula
  • Network (1976) — Sidney Lumet
  • Absence of Malice (1981) — Sydney Pollack
  • Quiz Show (1994) — Robert Redford
  • The Insider (1999) — Michael Mann
  • Veronica Guerin (2003) — Joel Schumacher
  • Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) — George Clooney
  • Kill the Messenger (2014) — Michael Cuesta
  • Spotlight (2015) — Tom McCarthy
  • Truth (2015) — James Vanderbilt
  • The Post (2017) — Steven Spielberg

Other films by Billy Ray

  • Hart's War (2002) — writer
  • Flightplan (2005) — writer
  • Breach (2007) — writer, director
  • State of Play (2009) — writer
  • The Hunger Games (2012) — writer
  • Captain Phillips (2013) — writer

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