I managed to take in the highly touted Canadian film Blackberry, which tells the story of the first smart phone in a satirical fashion. It is adapted from Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry. The film stars Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton in the lead roles as Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.
The premise of Blackberry is that ‘BlackBerry’ tells the story of Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the two men that charted the course of the spectacular rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone.
Blackberry is an interesting movie to watch and I will be the first to say I don’t know much of the backstory or anything about the rise and fall of the company other than I owned a couple Blackberry phones and always thought of them as an option for years about getting another one. All I knew was they made a hell of a phone at one point and then appeared to not keep up with the social aspects of Apple and their growing phone popularity and wasn’t marketed the proper way. Also that Jim Balsillie failed to buy several NHL teams to try and bring them to Hamilton. That being said I cannot speak to how true the movie is and where it may or may not have taken liberties.
The movie definitely comes across at times in the characterizations of Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie as a Wozniak and Jobs from the Steve Jobs biopic as they are shown as the quiet genius inventor and the temperamental more business savvy one. Howerton’s portrayal as Balsillie I feel is the best acted of the cast as he shows great range and makes the movie pop. It is hard to get past that it is Jay Baruchel in the role as Lazarids but it shows a different side of Baruchel’s acting as this isn’t his usual type or style of role. I did have a hard time watching Matt Johnson as Doug Fregin as it is just an unlikeable character. Not sure if that was the intent as it is a satire but seeing as the movie has Balsillie as the villain it is interesting to see a character you despise more than the bad guy, I couldn’t wait for him to get off my screen.
It is interesting to see how they used the the 2 hour run time not bogging it down by getting into the beginning of RIM or talking about the background of it’s main characters, rather than spend time building and building. It also highlights the important things and uses voice overs to get the things over. Jumping from the pitch to showing the immediate success was a great touch as it also speaks to just how meteoric the rise of Blackberry was and it doesn’t bog down everything in-between but shows the important things to show just how fast the once tech giant RIM and Blackberry fell.
This is a proud moment for Canadian cinema as the film has gotten universal praise and deservedly so. It is a movie that isn’t going to be for everyone. The movie does a good job at not focusing on the nostalgia of the once popular product but shows the cautionary tale of the same cycles of greed and corruption continue to play out over and over again. The well meaning creative inventors who lack the fortitude to make the company big and grow it to keep the lights on are in need of the overzealous bully businessman to get them going. One could only wonder why Hollywood had yet to take a stab at telling the story of Blackberry as it is an interesting one and Jim Balsillie himself notably with trying to buy NHL teams to relocate them to Hamilton could work as a movie. I mean we all still remember the term “Crackberry.” Despite my issues with a character the movie works and is a great film.
Final Grade: 8.5/10
– Everett
