Danny Boyle’s biopic gets to core of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs

REVIEW: Danny Boyle’s biopic provides fascinating into the complex character of Steve Jobs, the creative genius who co-founded Apple.

Steve Jobs (M)

Director : Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)

Starring : Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg.

Rating : ***

Always compels. Does not always compute.

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To its devotees and detractors alike, Apple is something other than just a tech company. But what is it?

A religion of sorts? A nation without borders? A circus presenting one high-wire act after another?

By the time of his death in 2011, Apple co-founder and two-time CEO Steve Jobs had all of these bases covered, and more.

He was Apple’s high priest, dictator and ringmaster, all at once.

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A visionary dreamer. A petty holder of grudges. A titan on the world stage. A terror at the boardroom table.

A major salesman who could pitch anything. A micro-manager who couldn’t let go of anything.

A man. A monster.

Anyone who has read Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography — from which this new biopic has been (very selectively) adapted — will already be well aware of the complexities and contradictions that surged through Steve Jobs on a daily basis.

Those readers will be the viewers most taken aback by what the movie chooses to either examine in minute detail, or leave out altogether.

In fact, the whole of Jobs’ life story has been stripped from the narrative completely, with the exception of three significant moments in his chronology.

A complete act of Steve Jobs is devoted entirely to each of these events, all of which are elaborately staged product launches that simultaneously brought the best (the appealing pitchman) and worst (the appalling perfectionist) out of the subject.

Just to clarify, this is Steve Jobs (played superbly by Irish actor Michael Fassbender) on the evenings he introduced the world to the Macintosh (1984), the NeXT (1988) and the iMac (1998).

Working from a characteristically walky-and-talky screenplay from writer Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network and TV’s The West Wing), director Danny Boyle mostly confines each segment of Steve Jobs to dressing rooms, rehearsal spaces and corridors away from the main stage.

Invariably, Jobs has many professional and personal spot fires to put out before he can stand in the spotlight and start another blaze of glory.

Those permitted to be close to him are great sources of support, attentive listeners and worthy sparring partners. These same allies can also become an enemy in Jobs’ eyes at very short notice.

The most notable (and also the best portrayed from an acting standpoint) are Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet), an unwaveringly loyal marketing director; Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), the popular Apple II creator who was with Jobs at the very start of his career; and John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), the Apple executive with whom Jobs shared a contentious mentor-nemesis relationship for many years.

The bottom line when it comes to Steve Jobs the movie is that you must accept it will not be painting the big picture of Steve Jobs the man.

This is one small corner of a portrait, magnified to the extreme. If you do happen to find this product user-friendly, it will be due to the aptly intuitive design of Fassbender’s excellent performance in the title role.

Originally published as Danny Boyle’s biopic gets to core of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs