“Blackberry” is a film about the failure and spectacular collapse of the world’s first smart phone. Adapting Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s book “Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry” for the screen, director Matt Johnson creates an entertaining look at contemporary history with his tale of the rise and fall of a revolutionary gadget that changed the world forever.
In this unconventional story of modern business failure at the hands of fraud and greed, the film tells the history of Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), the two men responsible for the creation and marketing of the BlackBerry smart phone. It was one of the first of its kind, featuring a pocket device (with a keyboard) that could be used for calls, texts and e-mail messaging. It was a revolutionary idea that was dismissed by many of the major players, until Balsillie saw a massive opportunity in the product and the nerdy co-founders of the company. Lazaridis and his partner Doug (Johnson) lacked business savvy and the know-how to deal with the sharks who dominated the world of corporate technology, and Balsillie became the pitbull they needed to whip the business into shape and bring in the discipline needed to run a tight, successful company.
The film takes viewers through the BlackBerry timeline from concept to eventual defeat, starting in 1996 up until 2016. The mid-nineties seems like a time that was so far away, but it wasn’t that long ago. (Being transported back to a world without a smart phone in every pocket is nearly unimaginable nowadays). The film has a retro look and feel that’s very corporate and drab, which is a great fit for the material, and Johnson’s storytelling is comprehensive but always entertaining, with a good mix of business-oriented drama and light comedy.
The most interesting parts of the story are when PalmPilot CEO Carl Yankowski (Cary Elwes) hints at a hostile takeover, but Balsillie outthinks him by launching a grassroots marketing campaign that made the Blackberry a highly sought after status symbol. He saved the company, which makes for an eventual bittersweet demise. On the other hand, he also directly led to its end with some shady stock manipulation that got him in trouble with the SEC.
The film is well cast with standout work from Baruchel, especially when he begins to crack with the realization that Apple is getting ready to kill his invention and his company with their upcoming iPhone, a product with the highest consumer interest of any item in history. The characters are flawed human beings (and in the case of Balsillie, a total jerk), but they aren’t impossible to root for.
Ultimately a reflection on failure, “BlackBerry” is an interesting and fun film about the competitiveness of Silicon Valley and the men who made some massive mistakes on their journey to the top. Their position at the highest rung of the tech world was brief, crippled by the innovators at Apple.
By: Louisa Moore
