This is a very good film about a true incident, how a young journalist, Stephen Glass, fooled his editors at the New Republic by submitting madeup stories as fact. As anyone who has read the news in the past few years, this wasn't an isolated case.
The acting and direction are all top notch for such a small film. Hayden Christensen plays the lead character with sly understatement, virtually assuming the persona that must have made it so easy for Stephen Glass's editors to believe him. He's likable, he's non-assuming and deferential, and he's an utter liar. He's even got himself convinced that he was only guilty of twisting the truth, when the reality is he made up over half the articles that the magazine published under his name.
Peter Saarsgard is excellent as Glass's editor, Chuck Lane, the man who eventually has to deal with the mess that's been dumped in his lap. A rival magazine checks one of Glass's stories after feeling they've been scooped and finds loads of inconsistencies. He's calm and focused during the crisis and manages to save the magazine from ruin.
The rest of the cast does an very good job also. And the writer/director, Billy Ray, does an excellent job of telling the story in an interesting way, showing both a detached narration of the events while allowing us into the head of a needy person who lies and manipulates those around him.
This isn't drama on the scale of Robert Redford or Dustin Hoffman playing Woodward and Bernstein. There are no histrionics or chilling scenes in parking garages with mysterious figures. The movie is a story about a man who lies, both to himself and others, because he wants to be popular and regarded as a success. And it tells the story of how a magazine deals with such problems, and in a way, how we need to look more closely at what we read in this modern internet age.
Top notch, highly recommend it.
The acting and direction are all top notch for such a small film. Hayden Christensen plays the lead character with sly understatement, virtually assuming the persona that must have made it so easy for Stephen Glass's editors to believe him. He's likable, he's non-assuming and deferential, and he's an utter liar. He's even got himself convinced that he was only guilty of twisting the truth, when the reality is he made up over half the articles that the magazine published under his name.
Peter Saarsgard is excellent as Glass's editor, Chuck Lane, the man who eventually has to deal with the mess that's been dumped in his lap. A rival magazine checks one of Glass's stories after feeling they've been scooped and finds loads of inconsistencies. He's calm and focused during the crisis and manages to save the magazine from ruin.
The rest of the cast does an very good job also. And the writer/director, Billy Ray, does an excellent job of telling the story in an interesting way, showing both a detached narration of the events while allowing us into the head of a needy person who lies and manipulates those around him.
This isn't drama on the scale of Robert Redford or Dustin Hoffman playing Woodward and Bernstein. There are no histrionics or chilling scenes in parking garages with mysterious figures. The movie is a story about a man who lies, both to himself and others, because he wants to be popular and regarded as a success. And it tells the story of how a magazine deals with such problems, and in a way, how we need to look more closely at what we read in this modern internet age.
Top notch, highly recommend it.