New Wave singer Kate's (Hazel O'Connor, CAR TROUBLE) career gets off to a rocky start when would-be band manager Danny (Phil Daniels, QUADROPHENIA) - who has been fixing the music charts for Overlord Records by purchasing hundreds of copies of their albums from targeted shops - gloms onto her. He auditions new musicians in her apartment (including Jonathan Pryce as a deaf saxophonist) and gets her some low-end gigs performing in a skinhead bar. The new band members pressure Danny to get them a recording contract which would equal better gigs and new equipment, but Kate doesn't want to become part of "the machinery." With the record executives come concerns over lyrics that won't get radio play and alternative suggestions, but also gigs highlighting her counter-culture appeal at rallies and political demonstrations. When she sings "Black Man" to skinheads at the "Rock Against 1984" protest in Notting Hill, she sparks a race riot. When a stabbed young man dies before her, Kate falls into a depression. The executives - who are dissatisfied with Danny's management - bring in producer Bob Woods (Jon Finch, MACBETH) to work with Kate, Danny and the band find themselves being edged out, and Kate may end up selling out all of her beliefs for fame.

BREAKING GLASS was the feature debut of writer/director Brian Gibson, and bears some surface resemblance to the works of his fellow countrymen Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, and Adrian Lyne; however, the film is not as visually dynamic as the works of those commercial/music video directors turned feature auteurs (despite the contribution of cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, who also shot Tony Scott's THE HUNGER). The story is also rather weak and predictable. As much as Kate protests being part of the machine and champions social causes, she ends up being pretty passive rather than being believably seduced by fame (first-billed Daniels actually has the more interesting character). After the strong opening number "Writing on the Wall," the subsequent songs are not as effective.
The large supporting cast features such familiar faces as Richard Griffiths (WITHNAIL AND I), Jim Broadbent (BRAZIL), and Janine Duvitski (DRACULA). The US release (reprsented on Olive Films' DVD) is missing the film's original ending (roughly an additional ten minutes of screen time).