hayden christensen, peter sarsgaard rosario dawson, chloë sevigny
jamie elman
unfashionable observations rating: B+
Stephen Glass is your all-American success story, or at least that is what he would have us believe. At 24, he has conquered the world. A writer for The New Republic—the most pretentious publication in America, due to its being “the in-flight magazine of Air Force One”—Glass is curiously at home there since he is the least pretentious person one could possibly meet. Almost servile in his relationships with his co-workers, he constantly makes an effort to please even the receptionist, at one point commenting on her great choice of lipstick. Indeed, he is quite well-respected, since he is smart, talented, funny, and above all, congenial.
After following Stephen through the routine of his workdays (which are hardly routine), we get the sense that his likeability is a direct product of his amazing ability to adapt to the people around him. He knows what strikes people’s fancies, and he hones in on that one thing until he has them eating out the palm of his hand. However, they never suspect a thing, since he is so sweet and humble while he does it. After all, he’s only 24. He’s harmless.
Right?
After watching this movie, it is hard to swallow the fact that it is actually based on a true story. Indeed, we learn that Stephen Glass fabricated—in whole or in part—over half of his published articles for the The New Republic (a total of 27 stories). How something like this can happen within the ranks of such a major publication still baffles me. But there it is.
Aside from the shocking nature of the bare facts, this movie is a small gem on account of Christensen’s performance. Director Billy Ray does well to use close-up shots of Christensen’s face while he interacts with others. This has the effect of placing the audience in the position of the one being duped. We become Glass’s targets, and surprisingly enough, it actually works. We immediately see just how persuasive a little coddling from this sweet-talker can be. Christensen manages to pull this off by being charismatic and confident, but not cocky about it. It is that genuine sense of humble amicability that allows him to pull the wool over our eyes.
And yet by the end of the movie, we are unsure whether Stephen deserves our blame. Maybe he’s just sick, like someone who suffers from clinical depression? Or maybe his lies were orchestrated to have precisely this kind of apologetic reaction on us in the first place? Who knows. Either way, it is at once wholly unsettling, and all too clever.
I’d give Billy Ray’s Shattered Glass a B+.
