Berlinale 2023: BlackBerry
In one of their first meetings, Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) asks genius manufacturer Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel), “Ever heard the saying that ‘perfection’ is the enemy of ‘good’?”, to which he replies “And have you heard that ‘good enough’ is the enemy of mankind?” This simple yet memorable encounter perfectly sets up the real-life protagonists of Matt Johnson’s latest film, BlackBerry, in competition at the 73rd Berlinale.
As the aforementioned title and names may suggest, this dramatic comedy follows the rise and fall of one of the biggest mobile manufacturers in the world. At a time when progress moves at an increasingly faster rate, with technology taking huge strides and adding more comfort to users with each passing year, BlackBerry works not only as a fictionalized retelling of how revolutionary it truly was to have a keyboard on the phone, but also that this constant strive for perfection can only need to failure.
Matt Johnson does an admirable job directing this dramedy, channeling his inner Armando Iannucci (of In The Loop and The Death of Stalin fame) to create a very charming, grounded world: the moments early on where Baruchel awkwardly interacts with his nerdy co-workers (including a hilarious turn by Johnson himself as co-CEO Doug Fregin), with endless movie quotes and a lot of genuine camaraderies, are so very fun, with the handheld movement and constant zoom-ins and zoom-outs only heightening the humor of the situation. It also helps that Howerton delivers an unhinged, very serious, and deeply committed performance that makes for a great clash of personalities. Even the sound design and score are employed rather ingeniously, as the electronic hum of a buzzer that literally haunts Baruchel’s character is woven into the musical score to thrilling effect.
Sadly, it is in its second half that BlackBerry loses some steam and falls prey to the trappings of biopics, an almost cardinal sin that hits much harder considering just how engrossing the first part was: from sudden changes in character behavior (especially in Baruchel’s performance) and other characters disappearing, to the predictable use of “what happened later” cards before the end credits, it ends up being far more banal and clichéd than it was.
A true shame, because BlackBerry had the potential of being a very powerful story of passion becoming an obsession, which then transforms into soul-crushing work. While this transitory element is present and is ultimately the true heart of the film (it is heartbreaking to see all the co-workers of Doug and Mike slowly lose the joy of working behind their eyes), the problems with the predictability of the script really drag this down to being just an acceptable piece of entertainment with a cast of wonderful character actors (the always reliable Michael Ironside steals the film), and still a far funnier story on the history of BlackBerry phones that one might expect.