Steve Jobs

Score:  **** out of ***** (B+)

Directed by Danny Boyles
Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels
Runtime:  122 minutes
Rated R

Long Story Short:  It seems like a zillion books and movies about Steve Jobs have come out in the last five years; now the big guns have come out for a biopic, with Danny Boyles directing, Aaron Sorkin writing and Michael Fassbender starring.  Sorkin's script is excellent, and Fassbender's performance is even better as the story looks at three particular product launches in Jobs' career.  While it's interesting and well done, Steve Jobs doesn't fit together as a unified story as well as it could have.  Still, this is very strong entertainment overall and worth seeing some time.


In 1984, the Apple computer company caught the attention of the world with its Super Bowl ad preview of the Macintosh - as Steve Jobs opens, the title character readies himself and his team for the official launch of the new product.  Surrounded by crates of Time magazines picturing home computers on the cover, Jobs struggles to perfect his presentation at the last minute, pushing both his tech people, like Andy Hertzfeld (Stuhlbarg), and publicity people, like Joanna Hoffman (Winslet), to make sure the world sees his true vision.  At the same time, he is confronted with a far different yet even more personal crisis in the form of a five-year-old daughter whom he cannot yet face as his own child.

While Steve does indeed launch his vision, the Macintosh, as he wanted it, the protests he ignored from both his tech partners, Wozniak (Rogen), and business associates, CEO Sculley (Daniels), prove accurate.  The Macintosh flounders.  Fast forward four years later, and Jobs, fired from Apple, unveils his new company's rival machine - a direct response to his old colleagues.  In another ten years Jobs is back at Apple, ready for a triumphant return yet also forced to confront the relationships, both personal and professional, that have haunted him for the past fourteen years.

The cast of Steve Jobs is very good, particularly its astounding lead.  Michael Fassbender takes on the role of the late Jobs, who captured the interest of people all over the world both for leading Apple in its consumer tech device revolutions as well as for his personal "rough" edges.  His products may have been shiny and elegantly simple, but he seemed quite the opposite.  Fassbender excellently pulls all the traits attributed to Jobs - from his brilliance to his cruelty - into a believable and incredibly compelling character.  He makes it clear that Jobs, well, "thought differently" than anyone else, particularly in the first of the three acts, the launch of the Macintosh.  More on the character himself later, but suffice it to say that Fassbender is simply awesome in the title role.  Kate Winslet also does a nice job as essentially Jobs's assistant - she mostly has to suffer through Jobs' stubbornness, but also clearly commands his respect as one of the few people he genuinely trusts.  Daniels makes for a believable executive, at times "villainous" and at times yet another pawn to Jobs' genius.  And Rogen is clearly taking a page from fellow comic Jonah Hill's book in taking on a dramatic role; he does pretty well in the small role as Wozniack, particularly in a heated exchange with Jobs near the end.  There are other notable roles, particularly Stuhlbarg as Hertzfeld, who goes from Jobs's whipping boy to something close to a friend.

Steve Jobs the film, like the man himself, is anything but ordinary:  outstanding in some ways, but significantly flawed in others.  The film is broken into three acts, each of them taking place in the minutes before a new product launch (the Macintosh, the NeXT Computer, and the iMac).  It's directed by the talented Danny Boyles; I haven't seen enough of his stuff to recognize the style, but what is most certainly obvious is the writing by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, The Social Network).  Be sure you're attentive for this one, as the dialogue starts fast and doesn't really ever stop until the end credits.  Generally this is a good thing: the quality of the writing is superb, and turns what could be dry and/or cliched subjects of technology and family reconciliation into entertaining, compelling, often beautiful drama.  Two arguments - one between Jobs and Sculley, the other between Jobs and Wozniak - stand out as electrifying.  Fassbender's Jobs is himself perhaps the greatest strength - unlike some biopics, the title character truly commands every second of this film.  The character, and the great acting behind it, brings about a variety of powerful and/or effective sensations in the audience, from excitement as he focuses on bringing revolution to the tech world; to anger as he wrecks careers and relationships in pursuit of his goals; and the gamut of emotions as he deals with his daughter from age 5 to 19.

Although it does most things well, Steve Jobs does have some flaws, and one in particular I'll focus on.  The three-act structure is neat and well done, but it doesn't all fit together very well as a single, complete narrative arc.  The family element - which, scene-by-scene, is very well done - seems to be the most intentional effort to try to form an arc, but even it feels incomplete.  When it comes to Jobs' career, the overall goal of the film is even less clear.  Without going on too long, each theme (particularly his vision of the products and how to maneuver people to get it done) is well done but the script, for all its power, can't quite bring them together satisfyingly enough.  Of course, this is all based on real life, but I think there was a significant opportunity to pull all the different strands together better than they were, without being artificial.  By the end, you (or at least I) feel "that was cool" but it is lacking a memorable, unified whole from all the individual components.

***

Steve Jobs is a strong drama with an interesting style; even if it falls short of Best Picture material, it absolutely should land Fassbender a Best Actor nomination.  As far as comparisons to other Jobs films go, I don't know.  This is the first one I've seen and even been interested in (despite the fact that I'm a huge fan of Apple products-since 1992), thanks to the involvement of Fassbender and Sorkin.  While I've given it a B+, it's certainly much closer to an A- than a B.  It's hard to find a lot to argue with - but unfortunately, the flaw of lacking overall cohesion and/or focus is considerable.  The attention to detail and scene-to-scene quality is admirable - but the feeling of "OK, so...?" begins building in the third act (culminating in the last few frames) and the strength of variety in having both career and family aspects contributes to the dilution of any theme.  With the massive amount of dialogue, this almost certainly benefits from a second viewing - though I think I'll wait until I can Netflix it.  Recommended for a night at the movies with a quality drama, particularly if you're looking for something out of the norm (but not crazy weird).



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