WRTG 391
Sample Response for Synthesis Matrix Exercise (Week 4, Discussion 1)

Based on the following three (3) movie reviews:

· Rex Reed, “Aaron Sorkins’ Empty Jobs Search” (The Observer)

· Benjamin Lee, “Steve Jobs” review: Fassbender excels but iWorship required if you’re to care” (The Guardian)

· Anthony Lee, “Wonder Boys” (The New Yorker)

(1) Synthesis Matrix:

Rex Reed

Benjamin Lee

Anthony Lane

Acting

Michael Fassbender doesn’t look like Jobs at all but does fine in capturing his charisma. Kate Winslet also does well to play his tough and loyal right hand.

The script dominates above all, including the actors, whose jobs are somewhat stifled by the script. Fassbender offers a “self-assured, Oscar-worthy turn”; Kate Winslet nails her accent and “is a strong presence”; Seth Rogen is given very little screen time.

Fassbender does well at portraying Jobs as a monster. He is “meticulous” and the movie relies heavily on his performance. Kate Winslet is the best reason for seeing the film. She is the movie’s “anchor.”

Script

The screenplay is unconventional and a bit strange, and there’s no narrative coherence. The dialogue is full of technical jargon and tends to “show off.” The movie as a whole is a “grave disappointment.”

Film focuses on three separate product launches that are like three “separate, self-contained plays.” The script is “talky” with “terse” prose, and it tends to dominate the movie and rely on an audience that is already invested in Apple culture. In the end it fails to capture the drama of Jobs’ story.

Following the story is challenging; Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle build the story around three separate launches: Macintosh, NeXT Cube, iMac. The story involving the “corporate tangles” are “dangerously dense.” Some aspects of the script are not worked in well, like the story involving Jobs’ daughter, and seem more expressionistic.

Character development

No human emotions, characters are quite flat. All the people are “hash tags” as they “fail to come to life in any absorbing fashion.” Characters are “faceless” and “one dimensional.”

Characters progress along, but are secondary next to the script. Winslet’s character is “no nonsense” and Rogen’s is “little seen.”

Jobs is developed into a complex character; a heroic “wart” that deserves our admiration, but this is done at the expense of other characters, including Joanna Hoffman, who comes across just as his “disciple.”

(2) Questions/Issues to consider, and responses to these questions/issues:

· In what ways did the script influence critics’ reviews?

· The overall consensus was that the script seemed to be too clunky and tended to dominate the movie. Two of the critics (Lee and Lane) focused on the idea that the three-part script was unwieldy and basically dominated the film in a negative way.

· The role of “Apple culture”

· The critics had mixed reactions of the movie’s attempt to portray Steve Jobs as a hero/anti-hero, and whether or not he deserved the audience’s respect and admiration.