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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Shattered Glass
Lions Gate Films Inc.


8.8

based on 38 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 12 votes
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FILM:

Breach

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language, sexual references and brief drug use

Starring Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloë Sevigny, Melanie Lynskey, Steve Zahn, Hank Azaria, Rosario Dawson, and Luke Kirby

A study of a very talented - and at the same time very flawed - character. It is also a look inside our culture's noblest profession, one that protects our most precious freedoms by revealing the truth, and what happens when our trust in that profession is called into question. (Lions Gate Films)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Billy Ray Buzz Bissinger (article)
DIRECTED BY:	Billy Ray
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 23, 2004 Video: March 23, 2004 Theatrical: October 31, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Presents Glass as a masterfully corrupt fabulist who convinced himself of the ultimate seductive lie, which is that there can't be anything wrong with telling people what they want to hear.

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

All give heartfelt, unflashy performances that help make Shattered Glass one of the season's most thoughtful offerings.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A moral, not a moralistic, movie. It's also a bracing aesthetic achievement, creating a fictional version of a factual case that illuminates as it entertains.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The sharpest journalism thriller I've seen in years: an absolutely riveting drama that doesn't glorify its subject in the slightest and shrewdly says a lot of very sad things about the state of modern journalism.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The interplay between Glass and Lane is riveting and rigorous.

Newsweek David Ansen

Writer-director Ray has a no-fuss style that is quietly, thoroughly gripping.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

An astute and surprisingly gripping drama not only about the ethics of magazine writing, but also, more generally, about the subtle political and psychological dynamics of modern office culture.

USA Today Mike Clark

You get the sense that there's probably more to the story than you get here. But the movie's moral will soon be indelible: You just can't fake it in the Internet age.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Against very steep odds, writer-director Billy Ray and company have, in telling the real-life story of fictionalizing "New Republic" writer Stephen Glass and his downfall, produced the most entertaining inside-journalism movie since "All the President's Men."

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is smart about journalism because it is smart about offices; the typical newsroom is open space filled with desks, and journalists are actors on this stage; to see a good writer on deadline with a big story is to watch not simply work but performance.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

In a sense, Shattered Glass is a parenthetical horror movie in which someone discovers (or worse, denies) the monster within themselves.

Film Threat Clint Morris

Whilst not an A grade psychological profile by any means, Ray has still crafted a meticulously enjoyable film. It’s as gripping as it is disturbing, and as well performed as it is mysterious.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A smart, suspenseful drama, starring Hayden Christensen, that honors its own factual roots as no movie about journalists has done since "All the President's Men."

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

What is a most pleasant surprise is how emotionally involving a story writer-director Billy Ray has fashioned, how he's turned Shattered Glass into a film for anyone who cares about strong drama.

Empire William Thomas

Gripping, claustrophobic drama.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

By retelling Glass' pathetic tale, Shattered Glass reminds you how our culture's emphasis on success and stardom in any field -- and the betrayal of ethics to attain them -- has a cumulative, corrosive effect on society, no matter how small the stage may be.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

May be light when it comes to psychological questions, but its detailed accounting of Glass' actions makes for fascinating viewing.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The film never digs deep enough into the pressures on Glass from his family, his peers and himself to achieve psychological depth. But as an inside look into the hothouse of journalism, it's dynamite.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Quite entertaining.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

An impressively compelling film.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Shattered Glass, with its dumb title, is smart about good vs. evil. Incidentally, the good is Lane, who now works at The Washington Post and was a consultant on this picture.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The issues the film raises are truly profound and discomfiting whether you work in the media or just consume it.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

Scrupulously accurate, sometimes-tedious account of Stephen Glass' malfeasance.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Given recent similar incidents of young con artists posing as journalists, this is a timely and compelling film, but I wish the filmmakers had widened their focus to address the kinds of journalistic corruption that go beyond simple fibbing.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Credibly and absorbingly relates the tale of journalistic fraud perpetrated by young writer Stephen Glass at the New Republic five years back.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Although the substance could have used more visual style, Ray tells an uncluttered story and draws strong performances from his actors.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Shattered Glass simply sinks its teeth into a juicy story, never better than when Sarsgaard methodically paints the sniveling Christensen into a corner.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Far and away the strongest performance in Shattered Glass is Peter Sarsgaard’s.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Smart, tightly coiled.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It's almost inconceivable how Glass could have gotten away with so much, but the movie makes a convincing case for how Glass used office politics, the good faith of his editors and his own personal charisma to get away with the worst offenses a journalist could commit.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

The sheer loathesomeness of protagonist Stephen Glass as portrayed by Hayden Christensen makes Shattered Glass hard to watch.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Fails on a couple of levels. It never really gives you a sense of the psychology, the root causes behind Glass' elaborate frauds... And since we don't know the why, the how becomes considerably less interesting.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The makers of Shattered Glass ignore this obvious give-and-take reality, and substitute the hoary myth that, save for the odd lying devil, the free press is a bastion of the gospel truth. Even here, then, the facts get shaped to fit the theme. Ironically, had they not, it would have made for a helluva better story.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Writer-director Billy Ray is so eager to be fair-minded about everything and everyone that you can't help thinking he's a patsy, too. If he directed a movie of Othello, he'd probably try to make us feel warm and fuzzy about poor, misunderstood Iago.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

The Sarsgaard slow burn is only marginally more compelling than the Christensen simper; like its subject, the movie is self-important yet insipid.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

As a whole, Shattered Glass is carefully constructed, intently played, and shot with creepy calm. It is also, by a considerable margin, the most ridiculous movie I have seen this year. [3 November 2003, p. 104]

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It irks the ink out of me to see Lane exalted as a hero for doing what any responsible editor would do, then being paid to consult on his own canonization.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Uses a wraparound story to provide a hint of Glass’ deep-seated pathology, but allows no details about how it came into being.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Cheryl C. gave it an 8:
Intelligent, current true-life drama. Thought the 69 Metascore looked low, and wonder just how that weighting works! Lots of critics really liked it. I did too...

Ben A. gave it a 9:
This was such an awesome story. I was really drawn in. The best element of this movie is trying to figure out when Glass is lying and telling the truth. This had some awesome acting, all around. This movie was one of the few where I actually noticed how skilled the film editor was. If for nothing else, see this movie for the editing.

Rick H. gave it a 10:
Best movie of the year. Hands down. The acting is excellent but most importantly, the storyline is a true story, and it is this basis that makes it possibly the most fascinating storyline you will experience at the movies this year.

Marsha T. gave it a 10:
This movie is truly a diamond in the rough. Relying on dialogue- and only dialogue- to bring the story of Stephen Glass to life, Shattered Glass is genuine and gloriously free of all the pretenses typically associated with Hollywood blockbusters. Shines through in a year when overrated movie stars, violence, and sex have been relied upon to bolster otherwise lifeless films. The acting is noteworthy, too. Sarsgaard delivers a believable performance worthy of Oscar contention. Shattered Glass is, without a doubt, way above the cut.

Scut F. gave it a 10:
One of the most engrossing movies this year; all done without extraordinarily flashy characters, quick cuts, obligatory sex, explosions or gun fire. Just a true story told well. I've seen maybe 4 or 5 exceptional films this year, and "Shattered Glass" was one of them (which name, by the way, works).

Eileen gave it a 9:
The movie is good. The ending and title are not.

Chad S. gave it a 9:
Hayden Christensen is very good as Stephen Glass, but he fails to make him likable. We don't see what his colleagues see. What Christensen has done, however, is create a character that we love to hate. "Shattered Glass" would've been a triumph if we felt sympathy for the devil when his editor fires him. But this is an exciting, must-see film. It's clear to us that Glass believed his own lies, in scenes where he places himself in the fiction with pen and pad, scribbling notes, in which he refers to when trying to prove the veracity of his story. Glass is a sick man, so sick, he daydreams about the validation of his prefabricated stories. "Shattered Glass" is almost the best movie of 2003.

Shattered Glass Lions Gate Films Inc.

Shattered Glass
Lions Gate Films Inc.