BlackBerry promises a lot more than it delivers, a bit like the device itself
Oprah’s endorsement of the device set its popularity soaring like a rocket. But unfortunately the BlackBerry’s fascinating story is poorly photographed in this mess of a movie.
BlackBerry (M)
In cinemas
★★
Do you remember the BlackBerry? I recall seeing what seemed at the time a revolutionary means of communication when a friend acquired one around the year 2000.
Developed by a Canadian company, Research In Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry seemed guaranteed to corner the then experimental market in which phones were combined with messaging devices. In this film there’s a reminder of its impact in footage from an Oprah Winfrey TV show in which Oprah enthuses about the new device.
Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry chronicles the rise and fall of the innovative device and the story is truly fascinating, especially given that the once enormously popular predecessors of smart phones are now no longer made.
The brains behind the company, which was established in a suburb of Toronto, are Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and geeky Douglas Fregin, who is played by the film’s director. While the clever geeks at RIM toss around the ideas that will become the basis of BlackBerry, they seem to spend much of their time playing games, surfing the web and enjoying movie nights as well as indulging in other extra-curricular activities. A strict work ethic is not something the boys at RIM let get in the way of having a fun time. The third key figure is Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), a wily businessman who practically forces his way into the company aware that the nerds in charge desperately need some business and marketing acumen. Without getting too technical, the original BlackBerry devices were capable of sending and receiving emails, text messaging, faxing and web browsing, as well as operating as a phone.
The device took off like a rocket, especially in North America, for the first half of the 2000s. There seems little doubt that, in the period before iPhones and all the rest, BlackBerry was dominant; it was the pioneer of a new form of communication, and it made its Canadian investors millions of dollars. Needless to say, corporate predators were hovering waiting for the chance to take over a company that clearly was not operating along conventional lines. Cary Elwes makes an appearance as Carl Yankowski, the CEO of Palm, one of the interested parties.
The story of the rise and fall of BlackBerry, scripted by the director in collaboration with Matthew Miller and based on “Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry” by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, is a fascinating one but it deserved better treatment than it receives in this scrappy, uneven, poorly photographed mess of a movie.
Director Johnson should have been capable of preventing some of the excesses of cinematographer Jared Raab but perhaps he was too involved in his leading acting role. Ultimately, BlackBerry promises a lot more than it delivers, a bit like the device itself.
Godland (Vanskabte land/Volaða land) (M)
In cinemas
★★★½
Icelandic writer-director Hlynur Pálmason, who made an impression with his excellent A White White Day (2019), has turned to his country’s past for his rigorous, challenging new film. Inspired by a small collection of photographs taken by a Danish priest at the end of the 19th Century, the film represents an outsider’s look at one of the most remote and unusual countries on Earth. Anyone fortunate enough to have travelled to Iceland, as I was able to do a few years ago, will be entranced by the eerie beauty of the landscape as stunningly photographed by Maria von Hausswolff in the old-fashioned, pre-wide screen Academy ratio.
Godland bears a certain similarity to Martin Scorsese’s Silence (2016) in that it focuses on the travails of Christian missionaries in a strange and sometimes hostile land, though in this case there is just one missionary. He is Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove), a Lutheran priest who is sent by his Bishop (Waage Sandø) to a remote part of Iceland’s southwest coast to establish a church there.
Until World War II, Iceland was colonised by Denmark and the dedicated, inquisitive churchman is eager to find out more about the strange country with its bleak landscapes, volcanos, glaciers and hot springs.
The sea crossing from Denmark to Iceland is a rough one, and Lucas’ attempts to learn some of the language from his interpreter (Hilmar Guðjónsson) are thwarted by bouts of seasickness.
On arrival he decides to travel to his remote destination overland rather than by sea, which puzzles his guide, Ragnar (Ingvar Sigurdsson). The party is carrying a large crucifix that is destined to take pride of place in the new church, as well as Lucas’ complex camera equipment.
Eventually they arrive at their destination and the home of Carl (Jacob Hauberg Lohmann), a widowed Dane who is the father of two daughters, Anna (Vic Carmen Sonne) and Ida (Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, who is the daughter of the film’s director).
The conflict between these characters, especially Ragnar and a rigidly hard-hearted Lucas, moves inexorably towards a lacerating conclusion.
With a 2½-hour running time and a steady pace, the film cannot be described as light entertainment, but the adventurous viewer will be amply rewarded by this finely crafted, thoughtful and provocative odyssey.
It’s worth noting that the two original titles seen at the beginning of this Icelandic-Danish-Swedish-French co-production, one Icelandic, the other Danish, mean not Godland but something akin to Wretched Land.
Sanctuary (MA15+)
In cinemas
★★½
Though very well-acted, Sanctuary, a claustrophobic two-hander, never succeeds in escaping the restrictions of a contrived construct.
Hal (Christopher Abbott), a wealthy young man who has inherited his family’s hotel chain, has a secret life. He receives regular visits, in a lavish hotel suite, from Rebecca (Margaret Qualley), a blonde-wigged dominatrix. The pair play games and enact different roles.
On this occasion he plays the role of an actor and Rebecca that of a lawyer who has come to discuss a contract. We also discover that Hal has determined that this will be the last such liaison; he realises that he has to take his role as the head of the hotel chain more seriously.
Rebecca, however, decides not to go quietly – she wants compensation and plenty of it. Before long the blond wig has gone and the sex games begin.
Zachay Wigon’s film, which was shot on one confined set over an 18-day period, is based on Micha Blomberg’s 2007 one-act play. I suspect that it worked better on the stage.
There’s a lot going on in this rather uneasy mixture of (implied) sex, humour and high drama, but the viewer is kept in the dark for far too long so that, despite the stellar performances, the drama falls rather flat.
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