Sharply written back story of iconic smartphone’s legacy
The phrase “comparisons are odious” has been around since the 15th century, but what the hell: “BlackBerry” is far, far better than so many of the recent wave of TV and film chronicles of product launches, and the visionary nerds behind them, starting with “Steve Jobs” (2015) and continuing through the recent “Air.”
I enjoyed “Air,” while also wondering if we were getting a little too much hot air in the telling. Consider “BlackBerry” a sharp-witted, fleet-footed complement bordering on a corrective to that movie.
It’s Canadian to the bone, taking place mostly in Waterloo, Ontario, where the aspiring software company Research in Motion became a global powerhouse with its clicky wonder, the BlackBerry, before collapsing in on itself due to illegal stock manipulation and the emergence of Apple’s iPhone, the thing that did not and does not click in the least.
Co-written, co-starring and directed by Matt Johnson, “BlackBerry” doesn’t sermonize or push the comedy or falsify the dramatic dynamics of wildly contrasting personalities. It’s a small but quite beautiful achievement, which you could also say about the smartphone that could, and did. For a while.
“The person who puts a computer inside a phone will change the world,” says RIM tech wizard Mike Lararidis
(Jay Baruchel), crediting his high school shop class instructor with the quote. His friend and co-worker at RIM, Doug Fregin (a bro’s bro and a nerd’s nerd, played by Johnson), later expresses the film’s key concept, the one that leads to the BlackBerry itself: “Picture a pager, a cellphone and an email machine, all in one thing.”
Beginning in 1996, the film bases its narrative on the nonfiction account “Losing the Signal.” The RIM office has some money behind it; a $1.6 million bank loan has led to the invention and production of modems shipped off to RIM’s first big client, U.S. Robotics. Only they haven’t gotten paid yet. Mike is panicking; Doug is too busy having a ball with the guys on movie night to care about the future.
Then they meet their destiny, as well as their Waterloo: the shark-like entrepreneur Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), who quickly embeds himself into RIM’s future as co-CEO and taskmaster. Soon, massive success and greater financial lust come calling. The high-flying BlackBerry honcho begins cutting ethical and legal corners, promising every new flashy hire millions in backdated stock options. Meantime, the key Mike/ Doug friendship, as dramatized in the script by Johnson and Matthew Miller, frays, strand by strand.
“BlackBerry” recalls the betrayal of trust between pals and startup founders in “The Social Network,” the gold standard in the realm of freely fictionalized tech-age cautionary tales. This one’s not after the same sort of darktoned ruminations, at least in the same storytelling fashion. The cast boasts some deadpan ringers, notably Baruchel, who never fails to amuse with dramatic precision when called for. The spark plug, though, dominates throughout. Howerton plays Balsillie as a raging, semi-maniacal force of nature, and it’s a terrific performance. We’ve seen this guy before in a lot of movies, but rarely better.
MPA rating: R (for language throughout)
Running time: 1:59
How to watch: In theaters May 12