Shattered Glass

Slight spoilers from beginning to end.
A startling performance from the usually un-reliable Hayden Christensen is just one of the stepping stones Billy Ray's Shattered Glass takes towards near perfection. Christensen plays Stephen Glass, a young reporter who invented facts, locations, quotes and people in his stories for The New Republic, a respected magazine known especially for being supplied to the passengers aboard Air Force One. Christensen's startling performance shows he is a fine actor when given the right role to bite his teeth into to, but he is still upstaged in many scenes by Peter Sarsgaard, one of the most reliable actors in the business, and sadly one of the most underrated.

Rather than demonizing Glass, the film takes an abstract view of his exploits, making his lies as inconspicuous as they were to his co-workers, at least at first. It then focuses on a story about a hacker who gained access to a major software companies' wesbite, in which Glass lost himself in his lies and was gradually found out. It starts with a routine check-up, then a few suspicious glances about, then the belief Glass made a mistake, and finally the realization he made it all up. In an especially powerful scene, Glass' editor Chuck Lane (beautifully underplayed by Saarsgard) reads through every one of Glass' items, and as he tosses each one to the floor, realizes the extent of Glass' lies, and how long he had been getting away with it.


There is support from Hank Azaria, who plays a large part in Glass' upbringing, Steve Zahn, who is the first to sniff out the inconsistencies in Glass' story, and Rosario Dawson, whose nosiness ends up landing her a part in his investigation of Glass and his 'sources'. Glass also makes a few female friends at the magazine, lead by Chloe Segviny, who at first refuse to believe the accusations that have been leveled against him, but gradually come to realise the truth. Every one of the supporting players are faultless, each contributing in their own way to Glass' downfall.

Difficult to criticise in any way, Shattered Glass is a thought-provoking triumph of low-budget but high-quality filmmaking, bringing into the open many underused talents, and suggesting a career beyond Star Wars for Hayden Christensen. ***** / *****.

Bride & Prejudice

When adapting a classic tale and moving it to a modern setting and era, either you have to stay respectful to your source, or you have to alter it so much, people will barely remember where it originated from. Lets take Clueless as an example. Possibly the best teen movie of all time, it is, like Bride & Prejudice, based on an old and very famous text – Emma, by Jane Austen. But unlike Bride & Prejudice, it puts a truly original and innovative spin on its source text. Her mother dies from liposuction complications? Genius!

Another example – Bridget Jones’ Diary. In this spin on the story, Helen Fielding took the ideas and main characters behind the novel Pride and Prejudice and twisted it about to her own satisfaction, while still sticking to the basis of the story – the love triangle between the woman and the two men.

Both are hilarious movies. Bride and Prejudice is not. Gurinder Chadha, previously of Bend It Like Beckham and Bhaji on the Beach, tries to combine a classic story with dance numbers and cheesy lines that are (deliberately) typical of Bollywood films, but sadly the two aspects of the film just don’t fit together, making for a un-enjoyable mess.


Aishwarya Rai is Lalita, an Indian girl whose sister has just gotten married, and is next on the list. Her mother is stereotypically obsessed with fixing her up with a rich Indian, and is outraged when she invites a Brit, Mr. Wickham, to stay at their house. Meanwhile, Lalita meets Will Darcy, a rich American businessman who falls for her instantly, only to have her explode on him over his disrespectful view of the Indian culture.

The movie blends romantic comedy with blatantly lip-synched song and dance numbers. Obviously, Chadha really wants you to really get into the feel of it, and have lots of fun, but its just not possible. The cast is uninteresting, especially Martin Henderson, who is little more than a pretty face, and Daniel Gillies (Mary-Jane’s rejected husband in Spider-Man 2) who is simply irritating. Only the spouse that Lalita’s mother approves of, a rich, nerdy Indian now living in Los Angeles, presents any laughs.

Chadha has admitted Bend It Like Beckham was a deliberate venture into mainstream territory, basically her attempt at making a universally popular film. Now that she’s back to what she was apparently ‘best at’, it seems she is hoping the success of Bend It will encourage viewers to go see a film just because her name is attached to it. Dirty trick really, since Bride & Prejudice is nowhere near as fun as Bend It, nor are there any ‘breakout stars’ on the level of Keira or Parminder hiding in its depths. Boring, throwaway trash
** / *****

Wimbledon

Lets be honest now. There's a part in all of us, no matter how small, that is dying to see Wimbledon. Working Title bringing together Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst, with a dash of tennis and more than a dash of unessecary nudity? How bad could it be? Well, it could have been awful. The idea sounds foolproof, but the trailers showed a disturbingly ridiculous romantic direction for the film, and after seeing them, suddenly I wasn't quite so excited. But I decided to see it anyway, and though the rom-com didn't do anything new, apart from filming tennis in a suitably cinematic way, it was still plenty of predictable fun.

But then, with two such charming leads, how could it not have been? Bettany, infuriatingly billed second on all the posters despite having a voice-over throughout the film, is as brilliant as ever and suited to his role. Dunst is a more questionable casting but together they make a nice couple. The supporting cast amble through lazily but are decent enough, although Jon Favreau is utterly wasted as Bettany's manager.

Director Richard Loncraine takes a decent shot (no pun intended) at filming the tennis action, and although it can be tiring on the eyes, it's fun to watch and some of the best tennis I've ever seen in the cinema. Bettany is convincing enough as a tennis player, although again, Dunst is more questionable. Despite all the talk, she is yet to prove herself as a real actress, with one exception - her wonderful performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.


I had been planning on writing a slightly longer review for Wimbledon, but I find my mind has gone blank. Wimbledon is fun, with flashes of inspiration at times and full of predictable feel-good humour. But it never realises its full potential, and thus is nowhere near as much fun as it should have been. Worth seeing if you've got nothing better to do, but ultimately, it's the definition of the word 'meh'.

*** out of 5.