Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs… when we first heard that news it just did not seem right. Well, let’s just say the film Jobs is a lesson in don’t judge a book by its cover. Kutcher is astounding as the Apple Computers founder. He captures his mannerisms (such as how much he delicately talked with his hands). Kutcher has his shuffled walk down pat. It is uncanny, but is a performance alone enough to buoy a film to greatness?
Jobs begins its biopic journey as Jobs is introducing what he promises will “change an industry.” He is debuting the iPod. Then, the film quickly flashes back to the early 1970s when the innovator was a recent dropout at Reed College. One can see how in our Ashton Kutcher interview he took away a unique perspective on Jobs’ attitude towards school. Some of the best minds of our times did not complete college, including Jobs’ rival, Bill Gates.
Jobs has a vision of bringing the bulky and inconvenient machine that is the “modern” computer into people’s homes. He has a comrade in that effort in a tech-savvy friend named Steve Wozniak (played impeccably by Josh Gad). As seen in this Jobs American Legend trailer, the duo start small, but are always thinking big.
The film does a solid job of showing the speed bumps that Jobs and Wozniak had to go through in order to achieve their dream. It’s hard to imagine now given the proliferation of computers in our homes and businesses, but the duo had to explain to potential buyers that what they were building was like a combination of “your television with a typewriter.” People just didn’t get it.
We all think we know the story of Jobs' rise, fall and rise again at Apple Computers. But, did you know, as this Jobs clip shows, how they even came up with the company’s name? It’s moments like that that make Jobs a fascinating movie. It’s also a compelling study in human nature as honestly, the man does not necessarily come off like the nicest guy in the world. He ruled his business with not necessarily an iron fist, but with a firm handle on what he felt the future should be, oftentimes clashing with his board of directors.
Our Jobs review finds it an interesting biopic to say the least. It unfortunately does not have a whole lot of innovation shown, when they are portraying the life of one of history’s great innovators. We are to take at face value what happened to the man over his esteemed life and career, without truly delving into the nitty gritty of what makes him tick.
Kutcher does an incredible job as Jobs, and Gad does even more in the supporting role. Jobs is a must-see film, simply because the man is our times’ Thomas Edison. We just wish, and this is my pet peeve with biopics, that it went deeper. We rarely get remakes of biopics, so there is only one chance to get it right. Jobs does a solid job, it just fails to hit a home run.