The eponymous Company of Neve Campbell's and Robert Altman's collaboration is The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, whose members perform stunningly in Campbells valentine to the dance.

Campbell, who studied with the National Ballet School of Canada before turning her talents to acting, co-wrote the story of The Company with Barbara Turner, who penned the screenplay adaptation. Sinking a huge amount of her own money into the films production, she wisely chose Robert Altman, a master at turning the comings-and-goings of individuals in insular societies into fascinating material, to direct this birds eye view of a year in the life of a ballet community that is a world unto itself.

Campbell wrote a part for herself as Loretta Ry Ryan, a young dancer with a bright future, who she (also wisely) keeps out of the limelight, apart from her romance with a chef (James Franco). In this, and any, dance company, its made abundantly clear that there are only four stars: The director, the choreographer, the dance itself, and the troupe, which functions as a unit, a sum far greater than its individual parts. These are people whose lives are dedicated to the pursuit of their craft, to the exclusion of almost everything else (except drinking, it would appear here); and whose fortunes rise and fall on the snap of an Achilles tendon; whose show goes on despite a lightning storm or an injury mid-performance.

Malcolm McDowell is the director, Alberto Antonelli, or "Mr. A," apparently modelled on Joffrey co-founder Gerald Arpino - and perhaps another egotistical, benevolent autocrat, Mr. Altman himself. Robert Desrosiers (as himself) is the choreographer obsessed with staging the wildly and hellishly over-the-top 'Blue Snake' ballet around Mr. A's, and the board of directors, admonitions about "budget, budget, budget." The troupe are the young people who, when not transported by the dance, struggle with the mundane - stretching their tight budgets by waiting on tables and sleeping 12 to a flat, coping with divorced parents and pushy mothers, dealing with the stresses of job politics while pushing their bodies to their physical limits and beyond.

Notable, too, is Mr. A's assistant Harriet (Barbara Robertson), a former dancer who finds reprieve alone at the barre, taking up her gear with a sigh as the young dancers file in for their practice.

Among the highlights of the dances, many seen in rehearsal as well as in staged performance: Campbell and Domingo Rubio performing an elegant pas de deux (Lar Lubovitch's "My Funny Valentine") in the midst of a lightning storm in Chicago's Grant Park; Alwin Nikolais' "Tensile Involvement"; Arpino's own "Suite Saint-Saens," "Light Rain," and "Trinity," all still featured it is said, in the Joffrey Chicago repertoire; and the film's rivetting showpiece, an excerpt from "White Widow," by Moses Pendleton and Cynthia Quinn, in which a solo dancer, suspended on stage in a swing, twirls gracefully, accompanied by the ethereally-voiced Julee Cruise singing "The World Spins" (music and lyrics by Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch).

The whole film is lovingly tendered, but let down by the horrendous "Blue Snake" climax - make up your own mind - is this ironic sarcasm, or just choreographed cheese on a broken biscuit of tasteless excess?

Cast: Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Zahn, Melanie Lynskey, Hank Azaria, Rosario Dawson
Director: Billy Ray
Producers: Craig Baumgarten, Marc Butan, Tove Christensen, Gaye Hirsch, Adam Merims
Screenplay: Billy Ray, based on the article by H.G. Bissinger
Cinematography: Mandy Walker

"Shattered Glass" is based on the true story of Stephen Glass, a young writer for The New Republic magazine who fooled his editors and co-workers for years by fabricating all or parts of articles that were supposed to be non-fiction. The film works both as a narrative about the events leading up to the discovery of Glass' deception, and as a character study of Glass himself. This is one of the best films you'll see this year.

Hayden Christensen of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones stars as Stephen Glass. I know what you are thinking, Christensen was less than impressive in Star Wars as Anakin Skywalker - but he is terrific in Shattered Glass. In the late 1990s, a highly influential magazine, 'The New Republic' had a staff of very young writers (average age, 26). Glass was the youngest of the lot. Every article written by the staff was thoroughly examined for accuracy and subjected to multiple layers of editing. Yet there was a flaw in the editing process. Fact-checkers relied too much on the notes of the reporters to verify the accuracy of the articles. Glass fabricated his notes and nobody was the wiser.

Part of the reason Glass got away with this outrageous behaviour for so long was that he was very bright, talented and charming, working hard to curry favour with his co-workers and bosses. An early scene in the movie shows Glass throwing a party for his co-workers and various movers and shakers in the magazine industry. He was obsequious to his supervisors and constantly flattered his female co-workers in order to ingratiate himself with them. All of this behaviour was part of an elaborate scheme to manipulate everyone around him and to advance his career quickly.

The bulk of the movie is about the slow collapse of Glass' house of cards after journalists at an online publication looked into one of Glass' stories and found out it was false. Glass continued to deny any wrongdoing, even after he was caught red-handed, continuing to dodge evidence of wrong-doing for some time by carefully covering his tracks and manufacturing evidence to support his claims. He even got others to help him in his cover-up. He was remarkably quick and adept at making excuses to explain why editors were unable to confirm details in his articles, with a whole briefcase full of strategies, excuses and dodges. He created fake web pages and had others pose as sources to confirm fake details. The schemes were elaborate, but the journalists digging into his fake stories were even more determined to find the truth.

The story that brought down Glass - 'Hack Heaven' - was about a computer hacker who was hired as a security consultant for a company whose computers he had hacked into. Subsequently he was able to command a very high salary and a whole load of ridiculous perquisites. The editor of Forbes Digital Tool was furious that his reporters had been scooped on the story and he chewed them out. Shamed, star Forbes reporter Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn) started checking into the story and became highly suspicious of its authenticity. Following a great deal of research, Penenberg and other Forbes reporters discovered the story was a complete and utter fabrication. Penenberg's resulting story is considered a landmark in internet-based journalism.

Glass attempted to deflect criticism by saying he was duped by his sources - a strategy that might have worked, if he indeed had had any actual sources. Even Penenberg was unaware of the extent of Glass' fabrications at the time his article exposing Glass came out. It transpired that he had also fabricated all or parts of 27 of the 41 articles he had written for The New Republic. Incredibly, he continued to evade responsibility for what he had done right up until the end. There are certain similarities in the story of Glass and that of Bill Clinton, who was trying to cover up his affair with Monica Lewinski at the same time Glass was in trouble. Both men never stopped in their efforts to cover up their respective wrongdoings. What Glass did though was far more serious.

Hayden Christensen does a fantastic job in the title role of Stephen Glass. His desperation and his disingenuous relationships with his friends and co-workers are portrayed with chilling precision. Part of the reason the film is so effective is that we never see Glass actually doing anything involved in the cover-up, except lying. In some cases, it appears Glass himself is unaware of what is real and what is not. We have to discover the truth about Glass through evidence, just as the journalists investigating Glass must do. This clever plot device puts us even deeper inside the craft of journalism.

Top performances include Chloë Sevigny as The New Republic writer Caitlin Avey, Melanie Lynskey as colleague Amy Brand, and Rosario Dawson as writer Andie Fox. There is one especially interesting scene between Avey and Brand in which Brand tries to write an article in Glass' humorous, engaging style, hoping to emulate his success. "But Amy, you don't write funny", Avey tells the crestfallen writer.

Peter Sarsgaard is highly effective in his portrayal of Chuck Lane, the magazine editor who finally fired Glass. Lane was disliked by the staff of The New Republic, and the movie indicates that may have made it easier for him to fire Glass. Lane replaced beloved editor Michael Kelly (superbly underplayed by the ever-reliable Hank Azaria), a few months before Glass was fired. Kelly had staunchly defended his reporters against criticism from the magazine's publisher and was lionised by the staff for that reason. Kelly was fired, in part, because of his anti-Clinton editorials. Kelly, now deceased (he was tragically killed on April 3, 2003, while working as a reporter covering the Iraq war), also won the respect of the writer-director of this film, Billy Ray, who called him "the most principled man it's ever been my good fortune to meet". Both Kelly and Lane were of tremendous assistance to Ray in his research for the film, Ray has also been quoted as saying. Apparently Kelly was deeply ashamed that he had never found out about Glass' deceptions while he was editor, according to the film's production notes. Nevertheless, Kelly co-operated with Ray to help ensure the story was told correctly. I think Kelly would be pleased that the story was told truthfully in this film. It is not sugar-coated. There is no happy ending.

However it is a very sad commentary on the damage that one unprincipled selfish man can do to the credibility of an institution.