Some of the promotional materials for Steve Jobs ask "Can a great man be good?" Indeed, this is the question at the center of the beautifully filmed, theatrically paced movie.
I don't know a lot about Steve Jobs. I know he wore black turtlenecks and died of cancer--cancer that was initially curable, though he refused traditional Western treatments for it. So really, Jobs was killed by his own hubris, which, in Greek tragedy style, is incredibly appropriate given that he was brimming with self-importance.
Jobs was an asshole. A brilliant asshole. Which is a label we give, almost reverently, to Great Men (Great Women are dismissed as "bitches", but that seems to be changing).
This biopic was written by exactly the correct person to write it: Aaron Sorkin, master of the "walk and talk", a man with a love for Great Men (and the Women Who Stand Beside Them, But Not Too Close as to Gain Their Own Glory). Sorkin writes condescending assholes really well, and his script for Steve Jobs is excellent--witty, fast-paced, informative but not expository.
However, the movie transcends Sorkin-dom because director Danny Boyle at is also at the helm. Boyle's films are edgy and gorgeous. Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, 127 Hours: they're nervy, edgy, and cool. Boyle takes Sorkin's intellectual script and shakes it up with scenes filmed at skewed angles, or softens it with scenes of a young girl wandering among Christmas lights in the bowels of the symphony hall where Jobs launched one of his greatest failures: the NeXT computer. Together, Boyle and Sorkin create a film that is arty and intellectual, dreamy and down-to-earth, soft and hard.
That young girl is Lisa Brennan. Lisa was Jobs' daughter, though he denied paternity for years (although he bought Lisa and her mother, Chrisann, a house and paid child support). The beating heart of Steve Jobs is Jobs' relationship with Lisa. The film suggests that once Jobs realized Lisa was a very intelligent girl, he started accepting that maybe, in fact, she was his.
Jobs is played by Michael Fassbender. Fassbender doesn't really look like Jobs at all. He's too square-jawed, handsome, and masculine. But he nails Jobs' nasally, soft-spoken tone of voice. Fassbender, who is also known as a brilliant asshole (albeit in the world of acting, not computers), is surprisingly appropriate to take on the role of a man who is very soft-spoken and perhaps even a bit wimpy-looking, but is aggressive and off-putting to even his close confidants. One of those confidants is Joanna Hoffman (played just fucking wonderfully and perfectly by Kate Winslet), his marketing executive and the only person who is able to hold her own around him.The film is divided into three 40 minute acts: in 1984 at the launch of the Apple Macintosh, in 1988 at the launch of the NeXT computer, and in 1998 at the launch of the iMac. The action during these acts is almost all "behind the scenes". Jobs interacts with the same people each time: Hoffman, Lisa and her mother, John Sculley (played by Jeff Daniels)--who was the Apple CEO from 1983 to 1993 and played a major role in ousting Jobs from his own company--and Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen). In each of these acts we see the various power struggles Jobs had with those closest to him and we also learn a bit about the history of Apple.
Steve Jobs doesn't set out to give all the entire arc of Jobs' life and achievements, but rather a glimpse into a few key moments in his career. Biopics that try to show ALL of someone's life often fail since they can only scratch the surface of each life event. By focusing on literally three days in Jobs' life and his interactions with just a handful of people, we learn more about the man than we would if the film tried to cram his entire life into 2 hours.
Unless you are 1) a Steve Jobs fanatic and/or 2) a film buff who wants to see the film for its dream-team collaborators, Steve Jobs probably won't interest you all that much. But, for what it is, Steve Jobs is a great film and fitting tribute to a complex and difficult man.
Grade: B+
PS: for whatever it's worth, I'm typing out this review on a MacBook Air...and I fucking love my MacBook Air.
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