Shattered Glass (Billy Ray)
Shattered Glass tells the story of Stephen Glass, a writer for The New Republic about whom all is not quite right. He seems to live a charmed life always at the centre of unbelievable and fantastic happenings, but hints start to show through his cheerful demeanour that he is walking a tight rope between reality and fantasy. Hayden Christensen is not a brilliant actor, but nowhere near as bad as his Star Wars tenure would lead one to believe, and while he does falter in some of the more intense scenes he is overall quite good here. I feel like both he and co-star Peter Sarsgaard could have used a more confident and experienced director than first-timer Billy Ray to guide them through the more psychologically complex elements of their relationship.
Though competently acted and produced, that's all it is, a competent film, unfortunately so given the interesting subject matter. It's a good story with plenty of twists and and air of paranoia and fragility, but there is a lack of something, the directorial confidence and experience I spoke of, which refuses it the edge it needs to be a great feature film.