Steve Jobs: Movie Review

Yesterday I went to see the Steve Jobs biopic with high hopes; it's been getting fairly solid reviews, it's about an incredibly interesting person, and the movie is Ashton Kutcher free, all totaling in a surefire recipe for success. Or so I would have thought. I couldn't help feel a little disappointed by the movie, and I believe a large part of that stems from having read his biography and remembering a number of the more interesting details of Jobs' life that were either glossed over or entirely ignored.

For the most part it felt like I had just watched the second installment of a three part series. The choice to present the movie in the fashion of three separate acts certainly allows it to delve more deeply in the details of those specific parts, and through that focus on Jobs' character. However, it skips some of the most memorable (and I would say most interesting) times of his life, and only selecting a sparse number of specific scenes hardly does justice to someone whose influence stretched decades. Starting his business in a garage with Wozniak is mentioned but only in brief. The creation of the iPod is only alluded to with a conversation with his daughter saying "I'll put 1,000 songs in your pocket." His untimely death which came upon him through neglecting his health in his famous Jobs' style of believing he can cure his own cancer with his dietary choices isn't shown nor mentioned as the film ends upon the release of the iMac. Through this it becomes an entertaining movie about a man, as it will certainly grab your attention through a number of excellent scenes with fast-paced, heated conversations but I cannot say it does more than scratch the surface on who Steve Jobs actually was.

He's painted as a self-centered jerk, and, let's not forget, it's easy to argue that he was. But he was much more than that - his wild eccentricities hardly make it through, save for one scene with him washing his feet in a toilet. Times when he would go to meetings without shoes or without having used any deodorant because he believed his all carrot and apple diet would cure him of any foul things in his body (all that is true) simply didn't make it to the screen. He was so overly emotional that he on more than one occasion would be crying at work and frequently so astoundingly cruel that he would make others shed those tears as well, but that was hardly touched. I mean, he loved acid and was about as close to being a hippie as a massively successful businessman can be, but you really just see him as a man in a suit who just happens to be obsessive and rude. Why then remove those scenes when they could have both added such depth to his character while making great cinematic moments? It seemed the purpose of the movie was to humanize him, but much of the greatness (or the opposite depending on how you see it) came through the ways in which he wasn't. His craziness - and there are few other words for it - are what made him. Yes, they show him to be a perfectionist but much in the same ways as many ordinary people are, and for better or worse, Steve Jobs was anything but the norm.

Perhaps more could have been shown if they had removed at least some of the conversations with his frumpy and annoying mother of his first child (Chrisann Brennan) and the child herself (Lisa Brennan) who as the movie progresses turns from adorable to, well, frumpy and annoying as well. Steve Jobs lags behind when he speaks with Chrisann at length about not accepting Lisa, and I assure you, those conversations happen far too frequently. Nearly half the movie is spent on Chrisann and his daughter, and each time they returned I would long for the talk about the company or computers. The legacy of Steve Jobs has little do with his relationships outside of work, but are instead a mere footnote that reflects his character and attitude. I would rather have seen his battles with Disney and fighting for Pixar than fighting over his daughter, or see more of his presentations rather than arguments with her mother.

If you go in completely cold to this movie without any prior knowledge, by the end you wouldn't even be sure exactly what Steve Jobs did. There's a conversation between Steve Wozniak and Jobs about what the latter actually does and Wozniak accuses him of contributing pretty much nothing. Jobs replies with a metaphor comparing himself to the conductor of an orchestra, which, in all fairness, is true - but the movie does little more than show him as a mostly useless cog in a machine that functions just as well without him. Perhaps he wasn't an incredible programmer, but his talents in leadership were second to none, even if he was at times agonizing to deal with personally. Watch the movie and you'll see him make a few costly decisions and little more, save for finding success while seemingly not adding much to the table. Jobs leads the presentations but they hardly touch on how effective he was in doing so. He was passionate about his ideas and demanded perfection, but frequently they only showcased those examples that led to failure.

This movie can hardly call itself Steve Jobs, as A Few Select Anecdotes About Steve Jobs would be more accurate. It's an entertaining enough movie; the acting is strong and the conversations are engaging. However, so much of it feels like a missed opportunity as time and time again Jobs is misrepresented and dulled from how he truly acted - again - for better or worse.