BlackBerry

Who remembers BlackBerry today? We've all moved on, made other choices in life, and left the once popular phone in total oblivion. So it's a bit odd that Matt Johnson chose the Canadian phone manufacturer for his film, which follows the same theme as Air and Tetris - fast-paced portrayals of brands that have been housed in basements but have now moved all the way up to the presidential suite. Inexperienced innovators who have moved from the drawing board to a permanent chair in the boardroom, and it's easy to see why because there's an interesting story behind the scenes here. Now, it should be said that just like in the case of the aforementioned films, the truth has been twisted a bit for dramatic effect, but despite that, Blackberry hits the mark with an entertaining light-hearted satire, always with a twinkle in its eye.

And as so many times before, when it comes to this kind of movie about material success, it starts with someone who hatches a brilliant idea but lacks the means to launch it himself. You have to go out and hunt for new resources of some kind. Maybe personnel, maybe monetary, usually both. Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, played by Jay Baruchel and Matt Johnson have been working on a new type of communication device, a device you can both call and send electronic letters with, a PocketLink, and soon the product name BlackBerry will be on everyone's lips, but the road to get there is crooked and the ditches are many and life will often knock on the door and wonder if it's not time to give up the dreams now.

The problem with these two gentlemen is that they are overachievers when it comes to everything that is technology-oriented, but when it comes to sales pitching, it is almost a disaster. If you look up "socially incompetent" in a dictionary, there's a big picture there of Mike and Doug. Conflict-averse and introverted to the point of absurdity. They're simply a motley crew of tech geeks and hockey nerds who were having fun at work and happened to find the solution to a problem that many have already tried to solve, without success. But they're not businessmen, and they can't dress like them either. Nowadays, that's not quite as important, as wealthy business leaders such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook can show up in sneakers, jeans and a turtleneck, but back then it wasn't relevant to go and meet stakeholders in a thong and sandals, especially if you worked in tech. A salesperson who showed up at IBM in anything other than a dark suit and tie was immediately told where the door was located.

An early failure, however, eventually becomes the turning point. When Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) is fired by his former employer, a former potential buyer of PocketLink, he has to share the CEO position with Mike Lazaridis. Jim is also a difficult man, with a particularly short fuse, but he knows how to sell gadgets and how to scold people for notes. As good as he is at selling, he is just as bad at understanding the product he has to sell, but together with Mike they form a kind of skilled management team that can complement each other in a strange way. In any case, they manage to sell the Blackberry, as the phone is now called, to Verizon in a decisive deal, but as so often before in this type of agreement, they fail to manage the deal. Sure, the company is growing like crazy, but it soon becomes clear that it's one big castle in the sky ready to be blown up. Absurd salaries, broken promises and unethical practices behind the scenes, to say the least. At the same time, their biggest competitor at the time, PalmPilot, wanted to buy the company and the best thing would have been to take the deal, but Jim's hubris has now taken over.

Instead, they went from over 40% market share to 0 in less than six years. And this is where the movie Blackberry differs from its fellow runners, that they were on top but fell early. Even though they actually had an American president as their unofficial poster boy. Barack Obama who, after much ado, managed to get his Blackberry into the White House, despite bans from the Secret Service. But we live in a world where there will always be something better around the next corner and if you don't keep up, you will eventually become irrelevant, fade and die. Someone's success is always someone else's failure and that's what happened to BlackBerry in the end. The world kept spinning but they stood hopelessly still, so it doesn't help that they once introduced QWERTY to a humanity full of wonder. Not when Apple was in the other corner of the ring, preparing for a knockout with its revolutionary touchscreen iPhone. The match didn't even start before it was over.

Basically, the movie has many similarities with David Fincher's The Social Network but without the depth and blackness. Instead, Blackberry is a thoroughly entertaining and warm roll where the nerd humour is both accurate and precise, but it's not just playful as there is also plenty of human warmth. Even if it is on the verge of absurd caricatures of people, it is easy to feel for them when their actions have consequences. It's a risk-free film that in no way challenges the genre, but sometimes it's nice that it can be that way too. That you take the easy way out when offered and don't complicate it so damn much. A couple of great characters, a strong story, some heart and a magical soundtrack with Joy Division, The Strokes and The White Stripes. That's good enough.