Jobs

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 23rd August, 2013
Time : 129 minutes
Director : Joshua Michael Stern; Writer : Matt Whiteley; Music : John Debney
Starring : Ashton Kutcher, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Luke Haas, Matthew Modine, J.K. Simmons, Lesley Ann Warren, Ron Eldard, Giles Matthey

Based purely on the movie, The Social Network, I quite enjoyed the character of Mark Zuckerberg, and even though he is shown to be a bit of a prick, would love to work for him. However, based on Jobs (the movie), I’m really left with mixed feelings about the iconic genius named Steve Jobs, and surely that cant be right ?

Jobs drops out of college and just loiters around. Smokes pot. Attends some classes which catch his fancy. Walks out of ones that bore him. Drifts a bit. Visits India (shown in a very groupie kind of way). Works for Atari, hates it, hates working for someone else. And then, by accident, observes something his friend Steve Wozniak is working on, and so Apple Computers is born.

Quite how the transition from lazy, unassuming drifter to design guru, hard-ass negotiator and consumer visionary happens is never made clear. Also, how a rather friendly, though self-obsessed guy becomes a raging demon, selfish bastard and insufferable prick in the work place is also not understood. But the film then merely traces his rise, fall and triumphant return along with the boardroom battles at Apple that marked the years from its setup to the beginning of this century.

I found Ashton Kutcher’s acting pretentious. Could see that he was trying to play a part, which body language / gestures / mannerisms wise was alien to him. The most clear cut personality shown was actually Josh Gad, playing the part of Steve Wozniak and Dermot Mulroney, who was one of the early investors. Quite a few characters struggled to make an impression, especially Luke Haas, didn’t quite understand what that was about. The background music also tries too hard to make us feel different emotions – the amount of time you hear what I call ‘rousing’ music is a sure fire indicator of that.

What works are the locales and Jobs fanaticism, which shines through, especially about design & symmetry, about trying to create things that consumers haven’t experienced yet. About not following the path of IBM and Microsoft, but instead blazing a whole new trail. And also the realization that genius territory seems to come with loads of eccentricities.

There isn’t a clear point to the story though, and that probably is its biggest flaw. Especially with geniuses, you have to pick one aspect of their life and showcase that best as you can in the two hours that you have. Here they try to touch upon everything, leading to an uneven pace, a fractured storyline and a hazy picture of a true visionary of our times.