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For as long as I can remember, we’ve been inundated with stories of guys inventing things in garages that will “change the world.” The beginning of Matt Johnson’s Blackberry resembles one of those stories, albeit with a quirkier tone and more jagged texture. A group of nerds, led by Mike Lazaridis (a pitch-perfect Jay Baruchel) and his bombastic best friend Doug (Johnson), has created a device–a phone… that does computing!–that the world isn’t ready for. They’re not taken seriously, until a raging, recently fired businessman named Jim Balsillie (a movie-stealing Glenn Howerton) comes on board. He bluffs, he yells, he whips the ragtag group into shape, and pretty soon their device catches fire. (Remember?)
It changes the world, yes. But what’s so beautiful about Johnson’s film–in addition to all the dynamic performances and moments of hilarity–is that in spending the final act on the company’s fall, the director shows how ephemeral these sorts of products are. Blackberry isn’t a film that valorizes business, nor is it one that sinks its teeth all that deep. Instead, it’s a movie that knocks wild ambition down a peg. No matter how big these men’s invention gets, they always seem quite small, destined to be munched up by bigger world-changers.
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