Movie Poster

Let me tell you the best advice I ever got at Harvard. You want to be great, you need to sacrifice. The more painful the sacrifice, the greater you'll be.

# Review

BlackBerry is special to me because I went to school in Waterloo; at University of Waterloo, BlackBerry still hires many co-op students and at Wilfrid Laurier University, the business school is named after Blackberry’s founder: Mike Lazaridis. This film tells the story of BlackBerry and its founders, detailing both the meteoric rise and the slow but steady decline.

The story, while obviously crafted with some creative liberties, is really solid. BlackBerry was one of the most influential tech companies by pioneering the smartphone but fell behind due to the move to touchscreens spearheaded by Apple. The movie did a great job showing the major events which shaped BlackBerry, such as creating their proprietary messaging service BlackBerry Messenger and fending off a hostile takeover by Palm’s CEO Carl Yankowski (Cary Elwes). The film feels very Canadian in a good way, both in its details in the environment, such as the old Ontario license plates, and in its casting, featuring Canadians such as Michael Ironside as Charles Purdy and Mark Critch as Gary Bettman.

The chemistry and contrast between Jay Baruchel’s Mike Lazaridis and Glenn Howerton’s Jim Balsillie make them excellent character foils of one another. The supporting cast, such as Matt Johnson’s Doug Fregin and Elwes’ Yankowski added much flavour through their exaggerated characters. The cinematography reminded me a great deal of the cinematography in The Social Network which was frantic but refined. I also enjoyed the slight sepia tone, which gave the film a nostalgic feel.

# Conclusion

An entertaining portrayal of a company's rise and fall.

# Overall rating: 7.8

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