Jobs

My review: Jobs

Joshua Michael Stern's biopic of Apple Inc.'s co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs "Jobs" has Ashton Kutcher in the lead. Written by Matt Whiteley, "Jobs" shows the erraticism, ruthlessness and narcissism of the man who never seemed to think twice about rubbing people in a wrong way or two on his road to success. It also show how ruthless is the corporate world where any moment the creator can get alienated from his product or in a larger parlance his enterprise.

But by largely focusing on only a few chosen years of his rise and fall and his eventual heroic return to the company he co-founded the makers have lost out on the struggling years as well as his personal life. Movie moves in a patchy episodic manner for suddenly certain issues are left half way only to be shown later with viewers clueless about what happened in the interim. Jobs' reconciliation with his daughter Lisa is a case in point.  By focusing largely on the corporate politics and power games movie has lost the human focus which might have made this biopic a bit more engaging. 

Ashton Kutcher has given his best performance so far (though still not in the league of the better actors if Hollywood). He gets the body language, mannerisms and persona right though at certain points his over-exaggerated gait makes it look a bit comical. He is well supported by the rest of the cast who have all done their parts to perfection. Especially Josh Gad as the other co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak is excellent. Lukas Hass and Dermot Mulroney have meaty roles and have done well.

Technically the movie is good. Background score is good. Screenplay doesn't lag except for couple of instances in the second hour of the movie. Otherwise movie moves at a nice clip without much scope for boredom. 

With another movie on the anvil on the life of Steve Job by the Aaron Sorkin touted to be a more authentic biopic "Jobs" fails to create a sense of fulfillment at the end. Due to its patchy screenplay and lack of human touch "Jobs" is neither intellectually nor emotionally stimulating. 

On the whole, "Jobs" is better enjoyed if one looks at it as another movie on the silicon valley and its power politics rather than a biopic. But sadly everything right from the title to promotions have promised a biopic and one can't but exclude the same from one's thought process and hence it falls way short of what it promised. However accolades are due for Ashton in his career best role so far. 

Bottomline : Wait for the Aaron Sorkin's biopic on Steve Jobs instead.

2.5/5