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Shattered Glass
R2 - United Kingdom - Icon Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Mathew Buck (4th October 2004). |
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The Film
 There are times when you thank the invention of home video. The times when you can't see something at the cinema, but you then catch it on DVD, and it turns into a great film. This is one of those times. A hidden gem, which is probably going to be overlooked by the fact the sleeve is covered in review quotes - but they are all right. This is fantastic film. The film tells the true story of Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen), telling various budding reporters in a classroom how to get published. He used to work for the respected magazine, the New Republic. Each issue, he manages to find a story that shakes the political world. His writing is beautiful, poetic and brilliant. There's one catch. None of it is real. They are all works of Glass' imagination, and he has slipped them through the proof reading because he made fake notes and soundbites. But when a writer at Forbes Online called Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn), along with fellow writer Andy Fox (Rosario Dawson), manages to discover one of the stories is fake, the Republic's new editor Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard) starts to do some investigating of his own and soon discovers Glass wrote fiction after fiction. The film has a great cast, with Christensen shedding any thought of Darth Vader as Glass, as not only will you like him and his charm, but you'll also cheer for his downfall. Sarsgaard is an excellent talent, with him brilliantly acting his world crashing down. The main cast is even supported from an unusual supporting cast, who mainly get seen in comedies. Zahn and Dawson are effective in their limited screentime, while Hank Azaria (better known for providing the voices of Moe and Apu in The Simpsons), is fantastic as the Republic's former editor Michael Kelly. The story is well character developed, with the first 30 minutes of the film getting us to know the team of the New Republic. If anything, the running time is a bit too short, as I didn't realize I was at the ending until I saw Glass being asked which of his stories were false. Also, no reason is given for why he wrote fiction in the first place (but that is covered in the extras). Aside from these flaws, Shattered Glass manages to entertain more in 90 minutes than most do in 2 hours. Go seek it out.
Video
MGM has provided a decent 2.35:1 transfer for this film. Aliasing seemed to be extremely mild, with even the regular offenders, blinds, were showing a trace of it. On the downside, there was a little too much film grain for my liking, but never does it become overwhelming. Subtitles were provided in English for the Hearing Impaired.
Audio
MGM has provided us with a DD 5.1 track in English only. Probably a bit too much for this dialouge based movie, but it's nice to see they have provided it. Often the speakers just serve to fill the sound effects of the office. The sound on telephone conversations seemed to be a bit low, but this is probably in the source.
Extras
First, we have a "Lies" interview from the show 60 Minutes. Here is the real Glass and Lane (among others), who talk about how Glass fooled everyone at the New Republic. It even goes one step further than the film, by explaining why Glass done what he did. The film's Theatrical Trailer follows, which given trailers, is pretty good, but still contains some spoilers. Last is the "Director's Commentary". Looks like MGM took a page out of Glass: not only is director Billy Ray here, but the real Chuck Lane is also there too. This is an active and interesting track that is worthy of listening to, with Ray looking at how he made the film, while Lane centres more how close to the truth the film is. Continuing their flase advertising, MGM has incorrectly stated that the real Glass articles are on the disc. Oh well, at least MGM provided features that compliment the feature.
Packaging
The packaging incorrecty states that there are articles written by Stephen Glass on the disc.
Overall
Shattered Glass is great film, given a good treatment by MGM. For anyone in publishing, this is a must.
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