Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs is much more like a play than a movie. And this, above all, is why it is disappointing. It’s so easy to see that the screen has been limited to the conventions of a stage, with claustrophobic results. You keep wanting the camera to do more, to break out of its theatrical confines, but it almost never does. As a consequence, Steve Jobs has no cinematic moments, no movie magic. Recall that scene in Boyle’s wonderful 28 Days Later where four survivors of the zombie apocalypse are heading down a desolate highway in a black cab. As they journey to the place that claims to have a cure for the infection, we hear Gabriel Fauré’s numinous “In Paradisum.” The grim movement, the otherworldly music, the empty road, the danger surrounding these vulnerable humans—all of this is magical because it captures the kind of world the characters are in. Not a single word needs to be uttered. The mood says everything. Nothing like this is found in the entire two hours of Steve Jobs…
