Broadsheet Movie Barometer

STEVE JOBS (122 minutes, 15A) Directed by Danny Boyle. Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen.

Steve Jobs is not your average biopic. It dumps the hackneyed tropes of the genre, and the result is thrilling. Opening with the launch of the Macintosh in 1984 (and Jobs consequent ousting as CEO of Apple), and concluding with the introduction of the iMac in 1998, Danny Boyle confines the action to a simple three-act structure that works beautifully.
By his own admission, Jobs (Michael Fassbender) is a “poorly made” human being. The film doesn’t attempt the impossible task of trying to humanise the man, but instead focuses on what makes the character so compelling. This shark in a turtleneck is a mass of contradictions; manipulative yet charismatic, arrogant and needy. Unlike the technology he was hawking, Jobs isn’t subjected to a relaunch with minor improvements every few years. And Fassbender completely nails it.
That’s not to say that the movie is without problems. Seth Rogen is distractingly out-of-place as Steve Wozniak, and Kate Winslet’s role as Jobs’ “business wife” Joanna Hoffman functions mainly as a source of exposition. Curiously, Winslet seems to get more Polish as the movie progresses. But this is nitpicking. Few can pull off behind-the-scenes drama like Aaron Sorkin, and the backstage pressure cooker environment is the perfect canvas for the scriptwriter’s trademark walk-and-talk dialogue. Boyle knows exactly where the dramatic pressure points are, and doesn’t waste a single opportunity.
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THE LADY IN THE VAN (103 minutes, 12A) Directed by Nicholas Hytner. Starring Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Frances De La Tour.

Some might say that one Alan Bennett is more than enough, but The Lady in the Van gives us three. This semi-fictional account of the 15-year period Bennet spent with a homeless woman living in his driveway opens with the disclaimer, “mostly a true story.” This waiver allows director Nicholas Hytner to take frequent reveries into fantasy territory and avoid the problematic realities of homelessness. So Bennet the writer bickers and argues with Bennett the person (both played by Alex Jennings) about what to do about the ever-present Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith).
The Lady in the Van is an urban fairy tale. It’s all very slight and inoffensive, but with the air of a made-for-TV movie. Fans mourning the loss of Downton Abbey will find some comfort in Smith’s performance. With her barbed putdowns and bon mots, Miss Shepherd is essentially the Dowager Countess in hand-me-down clothing.

FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS (116 minutes, 15A) Directed by Gabriele Muccino. Starring Amanda Seyfried, Russell Crowe, Aaron Paul.

Russell Crowe plays a father coping with depression in this mawkish melodrama. After his wife is killed in a car accident, author Jake Davis (Crowe) checks himself into a psychiatric institution. Meanwhile, his young daughter, Katie (Kylie Rogers) is sent to live with his wife’s wealthy family. When Jake returns seven months later, His wife’s sister decides she wants to keep her.
Gabrielle Muccino’s film ping pongs back and forth between Jake struggling with the seven-year-old Katie and her adult self (played by Amanda Seyfried). Big Katie is troubled. We know this because she tells her psychiatrist that she’s troubled and sleeps with a lot of guys (well, three). The cause of Katie’s trauma is obviously intended to be a source of narrative tension, but from the very beginning it is abundantly clear where things are going to end up.
Fathers and Daughters draws characters in the broad strokes of a soap opera, and dresses mental illness in the simplistic trappings of a Hallmark Channel movie-of-the-week. Katie’s promiscuity is cured through the healing power of a Michael Bolton power ballad, while the scheming alcoholic aunt wouldn’t be out of place on The Bold and the Beautiful. Crowe fails to convince as either compassionate father or tortured author, and the film never threatens to connect on an emotional level.

Also on release from Friday 13th November: A CHRISTMAS STAR, THE HALLOW, THE FEAR OF 13, TANGERINE

(Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

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