Review: Jobs

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★

A man sitting next to me in a screening of “Jobs” was moved to such boredom that he took out his iPhone in the middle of the film to check in on his various social media sites. I wonder what Steve Jobs would say about that. I don’t think he ever envisioned someone would be watching a movie about his life and would become so bored that they would have to turn to their iPhone. Unfortunately, that’s what “Jobs” is : a tedious bore that will make you want to turn to any number of Apple or Apple-inspired products to keep you awake.

We all know Steve Jobs already. Almost all of you are probably reading this review on something Jobs designed (if you’re on a desktop, you’ve got your mouse; if you’re on a Smartphone, our website statistics suggest its probably an iPhone). What “Jobs” attempts to show us is the personal side of the man, and how he built a computer company from his adopted parents’ garage.

We begin with Steve Jobs (Ashton Kutcher) dropping out of Reed College in the mid-1970s. We see his interest in the calligraphy classes he continued to audit. We see him travel to India with his friend Daniel Kottke (Lukas Haas). He eventually finds himself working for Atari helping to design games. With the help of his best friend Steve ‘Woz’ Wozniak (Josh Gad), the two design a great game for Atari called “Breakout”.

One day while hanging out with Woz, Jobs discovers a computer motherboard Woz has been working on that connects to the television. With Jobs’ insistence, the two decide to market the motherboard under the name Apple Computer. Soon, they’re given an investment from Mike Murkkula (Dermot Mulroney) to help pay for the mass production of what will become the Apple II. What follows is pretty much common knowledge within the world of business and technology. The film moves along up until the late 1990s.

That’s twenty years of time covered in 122 minutes. We’ve seen this time span covered before in other films, but in “Jobs”, the pacing is so painstakingly slow that it feels like they could have easily made it to the release of the iPad in the late 2000s. The film meanders with no guidance or direction, and feels more like a cheaply made TV movie.

This is not, however, a knock on the performance given by Kutcher. He’s done some drama roles here and there before taking on “Jobs”, but I think this is the first serious role he’s had. He turns in a truly fantastic performance. I’m not so certain this is exactly what Jobs was really like or not. I’ve heard that Jobs was so intimidating that Apple employees wouldn’t even get on an elevator with him when the doors opened and he was standing in there. That’s power based on fear. Kutcher portrays Jobs as a driven and determined individual. He shows a few fits of rage that Jobs was known for, but overall Kutcher portrays him as a man with such determination that he always seems to be on the verge of tears.

As for his best friend Woz, comedic actor Josh Gad turns in an equally impressive performance. Gad is probably most well known for his most recent appearance as a series regular on the short lived series “1600 Penn” and also as an original cast member on the Boradway musical “The Book of Mormon”. He can now add to his resume that he’s also a proficient dramatic actor as well. Occasionally he provides the comic relief, but for the most part he plays the part very well. The scenes featuring only him and Kutcher are some of the best in the film.

The performances can only go as far as the script allows them, and unfortunately the screenplay isn’t really worth a whole lot. Written by first timer Matt Whiteley, the screenplay lacks any direction or overall vision. There’s no story being told here. It flows out like a documentary with no story structure at all. We’re taken from one well known episode of Jobs’ career to the next without any guidance. I wish I could give Whiteley a pass for being a first time screenwriter, but I can’t. Jobs led an interesting life but according to this film, his life must have been pretty boring.

He highlights Jobs’ drive and passion, but we never really see what it is that drives him. The desire to be the first and to be innovative maybe, but that doesn’t ever sink in to the film. Anyone who has done a little reading on Jobs (I have, as I am not afraid to admit my Apple admiration and addiction) probably knows his drive is based on making the best products out there; being at the crossroads of technology and innovation. But where did this come from? We’re treated to a sequence of Jobs tripping on LSD, and then suddenly he’s criticizing how the individual circuits on the board are a little lopsided. The screenplay just assumes we know he’s attentive to detail, and asks us to accept that this is the way it is. Walter Isaacson wrote an immense biography on Jobs shortly before his death in 2011. I’m sure there’s a wealth of information that could have been gained from that unprecedented access behind shroud of secrecy that was Jobs’ life. But it appears Whiteley didn’t want to do the research into Jobs’ life, only the life of the company he created.

Director Joshua Michael Stern couldn’t even save the film from its dry script. He plugs the audience along on this two hour journey about as quickly as the original Macintosh 128k renders graphics. It makes me realize that the only reason this film was made was to show off how much Kutcher resembles Steve Jobs. Showcasing how much he’s grown as an actor seems to be a fringe benefit. Stern has seemed to let the script direct him instead of the other way around. That never ends well, as evident here.

While “Jobs” isn’t a complete disaster – thanks to the wonderful acting – it is by no means a great film. There are plenty of fascinating documentaries available that move along at a much more brisk pace than this. This felt rushed. The man has only been deceased for less than two years, and we already have a biopic about him. Another movie about Jobs is in the works which is being scripted by Aaron Sorkin. I think that might be the definitive Steve Jobs film. It’ll at least move fast. Unlike this unimaginative bore. A movie about Steve Jobs shouldn’t be unimaginative, unoriginal or boring. These are three words exactly zero people on this planet would use to describe Steve Jobs.