Jobs

Writer Matt Whiteley and director Joshua Michael Stern skate through highlights in the career of Steve Jobs (Ashton Kutcher)—first his introduction of the iPod in 2001, then flashing back to his hippie days inventing Apple Computers with Steve Wozniak (Josh Gad). Kutcher is a physical match for Jobs, and he does his best, but Whiteley and Stern let him down. They gloss over Jobs' selfish, unpleasant side, of course, but they even shortchange his virtues—visionary, entrepreneurial genius, charismatic leader. Instead, the movie focuses on the corporate struggles with moneymen played by Dermot Mulroney, J.K. Simmons, Matthew Modine, etc. (This movie takes place in too damn many boardrooms.) Russell Carpenter's washed-out photography adds to the feeling that the whole project was hasty and ill-planned.