Week 14 Movie Review: Shattered Glass showed Glass’s insecurities

 Shattered Glass showed Glass’s insecurities 

Shattered glass is not the type of movie that I like, but it was not a bad movie. It followed the true story of American journalist Stephen Glass (played by Hayden Christensen) and showed his fall from glory.

The psychotic character Glass starts the movie by publishing a story about a teenage hacker. As the movie progresses it is uncovered that the story is fabricated. Glass lies saying that he was tricked by his sources and deepens his lie. In the end, all his credibility is lost when it is discovered that over half of his stories were fabricated. 

The movie portrays the bad guy as the main character. Glass is a manipulator and a psychopath that believes his chronic lies. He builds his world and lives in a separate reality of our own. In the movie, we see Christensen's character continuously lie to cover his tracks. He does anything from blaming others, creating fake phone numbers, and flat out lying to his peers and colleagues in an attempt to maintain his place on top. Essentially, Shattered Glass is a movie that shows a man who is scared of losing his power, and thrilled by the idea of getting caught. 

Christensen's performance in the movie was undoubtedly a career-best. Although I have not seen many Christensen movies, it is easy to say this after seeing his abysmal performance in Attack of The Clones. I think this is a role that fits his style much better. His co-star in the movie Peter Sarsgaard was also great in his role as the editor Chuck Lane. He started shaky at the beginning of the movie, but as the movie became more emotionally involved, he began to break through in an acting sense. 

I think a good comparison for Glass's character is Walter White from Breaking Bad. Throughout the movie we see Glass grow to become addicted to receiving praise he doesn't deserve. He operates under the nose of Lane and every time he is close to getting exposed he somehow squirms away with more lies and charisma. If you have seen Breaking Bad, it is easy to see how these two characters are similar. In Breaking Bad, Walter finds himself addicted to the power he receives when he establishes himself as a meth kingpin. When he is in jeopardy of losing that power he will try to maintain it by any means necessary. 

I make this comparison because finding similarities between something that is considered the standard (Breaking Bad) for acting and what you are watching is a good way to judge a movie or tv show. Seeing Christensen push the boundaries of what I expected from him was a pleasant surprise. As I stated earlier, movies that follow a suspenseful story with no happy ending are just unsatisfying to me. For that personal reason, it probably is not a movie I will watch again, but I would recommend it if that style of the movie is something that you like.

Overall, Shattered Glass is a very solid movie. It is not a great movie, but a good one. The pros of the movie include great acting, a compelling story, and established character development. The tension between Glass and Lane is what carries this movie. The constant protection of Glass by his colleagues and his child-like innocence paired with Lane’s suspicious demeanor toward Glass are what create the building block for this movie. On the contrary, the con of this movie that holds it back from being great is its repetitiveness. The Movie is not long and for this reason, should not repeat itself, but it does. The tug of war between Glass and Lane is what makes the movie, but by the end, the repetitive story of this tension breaks it. It is an unsatisfying build-up that leaves you wishing it to be more.

In conclusion, I would give Shattered Glass 3.5/5 stars. It is a very solid movie that I found to be entertaining and captivating. I would recommend this movie to anyone willing to watch it. Glass is a great character and Christiansen does a great job portraying him. The only complaint I have about this movie is its repetitiveness. I think that the director of the movie is trying to create a mirroring effect in an attempt to foreshadow, but I do not think it works. Aside from this, it is a very good movie.