Steve Jobs takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution, to paint a portrait of the man at its epicenter. The story unfolds backstage at three iconic product launches, ending in 1998 with the unveiling of the iMac.
Unconventional biopic loses its way after a dynamic start with Jobs portrayed more and more as a messiah.
Boyle’s innate humanism ensures the film doesn’t vilify or venerate: it treats him like a human being, even when he’s not acting like one.
The approach is theatrical but, if Sorkin keeps the dialogue blisteringly smart, then director Danny Boyle ensures the whole enterprise is correspondingly lively.
Really smart people on a really smart person: Fassbender, Winslet, Sorkin and Boyle await Oscar nominations. But for all its relevance and grandeur, Steve Jobs is ridiculously entertaining. You might say, user-friendly.
I don’t want people to dislike me. I’m indifferent to if they dislike me,” says Jobs. Well, this won’t be for everyone but it dazzles. Markedly better than Ashton Kutcher’s Jobs…
Most of all, though, Steve Jobs is scuppered by its repetitive nature, with Sorkin’s overly verbose dialogue and Boyle’s proclivity for on-the-nose visual statements sorely testing the patience, even if one is prepared for them.
The final scenes are, arguably, contrived and emollient. Yet we are still left with a drama that is genuinely concerned with thinking and ideas relevant to the way we live now.
A classy cast all make the most of this bravura piece of storytelling.
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and Michael Fassbender in the title role provide the real insights in Danny Boyle’s fine biopic of the Apple founder.
As well as being tiresome it does not ring true.
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General release. Check local listings for show times.
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