Shattered Glass (12)...

Rating: 4/5...

Journalists are frequently portrayed on screen as sleazy, irresponsible and morally bankrupt characters who would willingly sell their grannies in exchange for a big scoop.

Speaking as someone who likes to think they know a little about journalism, I can honestly say that this stereotypical image of the profession isn't one I generally recognise with the odd exception, of course!

So it makes a refreshing change to view a film that chooses to adopt one of the principal laws of journalism by getting its facts right.

Shattered Glass tells the true story of a high- flying Washington journalist, Stephen Glass, who wrote for The New Republic magazine, a high-brow journal that claimed to be the in-flight magazine for Air Force One.

The articles he wrote were extraordinary, riveting and thought-provoking. Unfortunately, they were often completely made up, without a grain of truth - total and utter porky pies.

No fewer than 27 of his 41 stories published over a three-year period were either partially or completely fabricated.

Hayden Christensen, hitherto best-known for his wooden performance as a pre-Darth Vader in the last Star Wars film, really gets his teeth into the role of Glass.

He portrays him as a slightly nerdish character who cleverly ingratiates himself with his fellow journalists with a supportive word here and considerate action there. Before long, Glass is considered to be irreplaceable by his colleagues.

But when popular editor Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria) is replaced suddenly by ambitious young executive Charles Chuck' Lane, played by Peter Sarsgaard, the newcomer starts to smell a rat over Glass's latest fantastic piece of fictional work about a young computer hacker recruited on a sky-high salary by an electronics conglomerate.

Ironically, Lane's suspicions are raised by a journalist from an online magazine who, attempting to write a follow-up, discovers that the story simply doesn't stack up.

As Glass resorts to desperate measures in an attempt to cover his tracks, he simply digs himself even deeper into a hole. From little acorns, bigger lies grow.

Sarsgaard is excellent as the wary editor torn between his desire to back a member of his staff, and his concern for the credibility of his magazine, while Chloe Sevigny adds a touch of glamour as one of Glass's unsuspecting colleagues.

The film works as both a first rate thriller, and as a study of how one man's burning ambition to climb the editorial ladder proves to be his ultimate downfall. The fact that it's based on a true story makes it all the more extraordinary.

However, as a minor character points out in a throw-away line towards the film's end, the magazine could have prevented being taken for such a remarkable ride if it hadn't prided itself on only running text and no pictures. Freed from the demands of providing photographic proof to back up his articles, Glass found it all too easy to fool his employers.

Almost as intriguing as the film is an interview with the real Stephen Glass, which features on the extras available on the DVD version of the film.

In it, the self-confessed liar makes a full and frank admission about how he made up people's names, organisations, facts and sometimes even complete stories during his time at The New Republic. Now totally discredited, he plans to start afresh after training to join the legal profession.

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