Shattered Glass
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: October 31, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen 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. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
All give heartfelt, unflashy performances that help make Shattered Glass one of the season's most thoughtful offerings. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael 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. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam 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. Read full review
90
The New York TimesDana 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. Read full review
90
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Writer-director Ray has a no-fuss style that is quietly, thoroughly gripping. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The interplay between Glass and Lane is riveting and rigorous. Read full review
88
PremiereGlenn 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." Read full review
88
USA TodayMike 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. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth 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. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe 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."
80
Film ThreatClint 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. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
In a sense, Shattered Glass is a parenthetical horror movie in which someone discovers (or worse, denies) the monster within themselves. Read full review
80
EmpireWilliam Thomas
Gripping, claustrophobic drama. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter 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. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
May be light when it comes to psychological questions, but its detailed accounting of Glass' actions makes for fascinating viewing. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
Quite entertaining. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
An impressively compelling film. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene 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. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley 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. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The issues the film raises are truly profound and discomfiting whether you work in the media or just consume it. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Although the substance could have used more visual style, Ray tells an uncluttered story and draws strong performances from his actors. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Credibly and absorbingly relates the tale of journalistic fraud perpetrated by young writer Stephen Glass at the New Republic five years back. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Shattered Glass simply sinks its teeth into a juicy story, never better than when Sarsgaard methodically paints the sniveling Christensen into a corner. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Far and away the strongest performance in Shattered Glass is Peter Sarsgaard’s. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Smart, tightly coiled. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen 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. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan 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. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
Scrupulously accurate, sometimes-tedious account of Stephen Glass' malfeasance. Read full review
63
New York PostJonathan Foreman
The sheer loathesomeness of protagonist Stephen Glass as portrayed by Hayden Christensen makes Shattered Glass hard to watch. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven 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. Read full review
63
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. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)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. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony 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]
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
The Sarsgaard slow burn is only marginally more compelling than the Christensen simper; like its subject, the movie is self-important yet insipid. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack 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. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Uses a wraparound story to provide a hint of Glass’ deep-seated pathology, but allows no details about how it came into being. Read full review
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