Boring, Uneventful & Slow

Rating: 4/10 (29 December 2015)

Steve Jobs has one of the worst movie titles in film history. Of all the names for the marketing team to come up with, this was the weakest one. If the Ashton Kutcher movie hadn't been released already, I am betting the farm this would have been named Jobs. That being said, the movie plays REALLY long- and until the ending, it's a talky bore.
Michael Fassbender plays the title role, and although he's a fine actor- Christian Bale (the original choice), should have been cast. Nonetheless Fassbender does what he can. We witness how the co-founder of Apple is during three behind-the-scenes unveiling's for his product, all before the 2000s.
When watching the movie, I was reminded of The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher. Both that film and this center around a famous public figure, but the movies aren't really about them or told as biopics. They are more personalized and experimental. Streep's movie is really about how a woman deals with dementia and her love for her husband. Fassbender's movie really is about how a man deals with narcissism and his love for his daughter. Both films are uneven and messy because the focus is too grounded in emotion, when the audience is more interested in their overall lives and not just these niche moments. Because of this, both movies are not that interesting to watch- but are elevated by strong performances. Streep won an Oscar for her role, and Fassbender will be nominated.
Kate Winslet, with an uneven accent, plays Steve Jobs' assistant who is the only person who can really stand up to him (well, that's a lie- since Seth Rogan and Jeff Daniels also have cat fights). I was a little annoyed with Winslet's personality, and awful hairdo. She starts getting on my nerves when she threatens to quit unless Steve can patch things up with his daughter. Any professional knows not to mix business with personal- and her job is to work for Apple, not be a therapist. Winslet is okay in her scenes, but her character is unlikable. If I were Steve Jobs, I would have fired her.
Then there's the business of Lisa- the daughter, and I guess the TRUE emotional back-story for the movie's purpose. Forget that I'm worth billions of dollars, I better run after my little girl and remind her that I plan to invent the iPod for her songs and that I remembered some dumb painting she made on the Macintosh when she was 5. The daughter is also unnerving because Steve Jobs was paying child support, and didn't love the Mother anymore. He owes nothing to his daughter if he doesn't wish to donate- but he attempts to show he cares, and she eventually folds in the parking lot (which looks just like the parking lot in the Tom Cruise movie Vanilla Sky).
Steve Jobs is talky and overtly uncinematic, so I was restless when viewing it. There is nothing happening but a lot of nerdy white people talking really fast and using big words to impress folks. Oh, sound like The Social Network all over again? Well, Aaron Sorkin wrote that too. He's not a good screenwriter- he's an elitist who has a big vocabulary. But he sucks at creating characters that are believable. Fassbender and Daniels aside, this movie is one of 2015's biggest disappointments.
FINAL GRADE: D