'SHATTERED': THEY COULDN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

EVERY GOOD journalist knows that truth is stranger than fiction. Of course, there's an exception to every rule, and that anomaly is vividly on display in ``Shattered Glass,'' an interesting study of high-stakes reporting that will probably be shown at journalism schools for at least a generation or two.

Whether general audiences will be interested in filmmaker Billy Ray's finely observed study of disgraced New Republic writer Stephen Glass is debatable. Ray, who wrote and directed the movie based on a Vanity Fair article by Buzz Bissinger, nails the workplace environment perfectly, capturing the pressures, the politics and the egos involved in high-level journalism. However, he leaves one question unasked: Why did Glass make up all those stories in the first place?

Glass (played by ``Star Wars'' lead Hayden Christensen) seems smart and resourceful enough. At the age of 25, he's writing headline-grabbing stories for the influential political magazine The New Republic and freelancing for Harper's, Rolling Stone and George in his ``spare'' time. Glass also starts law school in the middle of the movie (which is set during the spring of 1998), supposedly bending to pressure applied by his parents (whom we never see).

Glass keeps coming with one great story after another - wild escapades at a convention of young Republicans, visiting an expo that is selling more than 3,000 Monica Lewinsky novelty items, profiling a teenage hacker who extorts a payday package from a company he has victimized - all without breaking a sweat. He pitches his stories at the weekly staff meetings, regaling a table of admiring staffers including fellow reporters (played by Chloe Sevigny and Melanie Lynskey) and a father-figure editor, Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria).

Kelly is canned, though, and the magazine's new editor, Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard, who is superb), must contend with staff resentment and jealousy. But that's nothing compared to the Pandora's box that is opened when Lane receives a phone call from a reporter for an on-line magazine, questioning Glass' hacker story. Cornered, Glass spins bigger lies and constructs even more elaborate fantasies while the straight-laced Lane begins to wonder if his colleague has ever told the truth about anything.

Ray's film works best as a smart look at modern journalism. It's clear Ray spent a lot of time getting the details right and it shows. (It wouldn't do for a movie to fudge when it's tackling this subject matter, would it?) The problem is that Glass remains something of a cipher. All we really know is that the young man had an incredible imagination and a way with people and the written word. What drove him to become a compulsive liar and how deeply rooted this problem was in his past goes unexplored.

Perhaps Ray didn't want his movie to feel like an apology. Instead, ``Shattered Glass'' comes off as a mystery, in the best and worst senses of the word.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

SHATTERED GLASS - Three stars

(PG-13: language, sexual references, brief drug use)

Starring: Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Chloe Sevigny.

Director: Billy Ray.

Running time: 1 hr. 43 min.

Playing: Laemmle's Town Center 5 in Encino; Pacific's Paseo Stadium 14 in Pasadena; Laemmle's Sunset 5 in West Hollywood; Landmark's Westside Pavilion in West Los Angeles; Laemmle's Monica in Santa Monica.

In a nutshell: A mystery, in the best and worst senses of the word.

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Photo:

Hayden Christensen portrays rising-star reporter Stephen Glass and Chloe Sevigny, center, and Melanie Lynsky play his bedazzled colleagues in ``Shattered Glass.''