The true story of a young hotshot reporter Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen) who was the premiere writer for the New Republic in the late 1990s. He wrote thrilling, colorful articles that drew the reader in and made everyone in his staff room fall in love with him, only to have his cozy little world fall apart when an internet magazine caught on to his little scam after he published a thrilling article, "Hack Heaven", about a 15 year old hacker who had impressed a big company after he hacked into their system and made outrageous demands when they offered him a job - and proved that none of it ever happened, which set off a chain reaction that revealed that Glass had fabricated more than half of his stories. While continuing to charm and manipulate his co-workers, Glass desperately tries to cover his tracks with everything from a phony website for the company to phony voice messages, but eventually his lies are exposed by Charles 'Chuck' Lane (Peter Sarsgaard), who replaced the late Mike Kelly (Hank Azaria) as the editor of the New Republic. The film is told in flashback with Glass fantasizing himself lecturing to a high school class when he is in fact really waiting to be given his comeuppance by Lane.
A tight, well told drama about the rise and fall of an ambitious man who eventually bit off more than he chew. The film's only real weak link is Hayden Christensen's performance. While he's not quite as bad here as he was in the Star Wars prequels, Hayden's still pretty stiff and wooden, which doesn't really fit with what we're supposed to know and feel towards Glass, because Glass is built up to be this sly, charming con man, but for the most part he comes across as a frail, weak little boy, but then again, that may be the idea for how he gets his co-workers, like the woman played by an unpleasantly confrontational Chloe Sevigny who acts as a big sister to Glass, except Glass was supposed to be lively, colorful, charismatic and entertaining, something Christensen doesn't quite project. Fortunately, the rest of the film surrounding him is well anchored. Special nods to Peter Sarsgaard, as the disgusted editor who helped bring Glass down.
A tight, well told drama about the rise and fall of an ambitious man who eventually bit off more than he chew. The film's only real weak link is Hayden Christensen's performance. While he's not quite as bad here as he was in the Star Wars prequels, Hayden's still pretty stiff and wooden, which doesn't really fit with what we're supposed to know and feel towards Glass, because Glass is built up to be this sly, charming con man, but for the most part he comes across as a frail, weak little boy, but then again, that may be the idea for how he gets his co-workers, like the woman played by an unpleasantly confrontational Chloe Sevigny who acts as a big sister to Glass, except Glass was supposed to be lively, colorful, charismatic and entertaining, something Christensen doesn't quite project. Fortunately, the rest of the film surrounding him is well anchored. Special nods to Peter Sarsgaard, as the disgusted editor who helped bring Glass down.