Page 27 - Boca ViewPointe - August '23

August 2023 Viewpointe, Page 27
Film Review: Blackberry

By Nils A. Shapiro however, when Doug reminds them that it’s “Movie Day,” Operating Officer
a time when everyone relaxes for a few hours to watch a is hired to change
Now is the right time film during office hours. the office’s working
for this film to have been It soon becomes clear that, while Mike Lazaridis is a atmosphere from
made, when we who true technical genius and Doug Fregin is a fiercely loyal such fun as “Movie
have lived through the friend and instrumental in keeping the employees happy and Day” to strictly
events it describes and productive, what the Research in Motion company lacks is business. Then, in
felt its impact can finally business executive know-how and leadership. the midst of one
know and understand the That comes, unexpectedly and surprisingly soon, in crisis after another,
background story behind the form of a phone call from Jim Balsillie, who had t he Se c uri t i e s
how and why it happened – rudely dismissed them from his office without apparently & E xc ha n ge
the incredible success and giving them an opportunity to fully present their proposal. Commission shows
sudden death of the technical device that changed our After first apologizing for that, Balsillie offers his own up as part of an
lives: the first cell phone, the Blackberry, which many proposal: He will make a financial investment in Research investigation into
who owned and used it wish it was still around as having in Motion, own 50 percent of the company, take over as certain aspects
been highly reliable and excellent for its purpose. CEO and provide the business knowledge and leadership of Research in
This Canadian production, released several months needed to make PocketLink an enormous success. Motion’s early
ago and streaming now on Amazon Prime Video, makes After some telephone negotiation, with the ownership financial activities
it abundantly clear without stating so outright that such settled at one-third instead of 50 percent and both Jim involving Jim Balsillie.
a promising technical project was doomed from the start Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis as co-CEOs, the deal is Scene after scene, with twists and turns following one after
because it brought together at the top of a company three agreed upon. (Balsillie tells them that he is quitting his another, we begin to wonder what more can possibly challenge
men who did not belong together and who proved to be executive job in order to join them. Only years later does this creative and resilient history-making tech company.
an explosive combination. he admit that he had been fired because of his selfish, And then … we view a TV screen of Steve Jobs
The film’s opening scene is brilliant in that it stab-in-the-back action against a business associate at the announcing the introduction of the iPhone, with a flat
introduces us to the personal characters of all three of earlier meeting and was now jobless.) screen keyboard and a list of features from Apple. When
these men. Mike Lazaridis (played by Jan Baruchel) is Regardless of the reason for the new corporate setup, Verizon asks tech head Mike Lazaridis how he intends
the technical genius and CEO of Research in Motion Balsillie’s business know-how proves to be the missing to overcome this new competition, he is faced with a
(RIM), a start-up company that has developed a prototype ingredient for the success of Lazaridis’s new mobile question that doubts the superiority of his own original
mobile device they call the PocketLink. He and his best device, now rebranded as the Blackberry. keyboard concept.
friend and co-founder, Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson, His contractual arrangement with Bell Atlantic as the How he answers that question; the eventual fate of the
who also directed the film), have come to present their phone time provider – which becomes Verizon – helps Blackberry; the ensuing behind-the-scenes drama that
new invention to Jim Balsillie (Glenn Horverton) a top the Blackberry to become enormously popular, and the unfolded around us all and changed our lives during that
executive at a major firm in hopes of securing funding company successful and profitable. impactful time, are yours to discover when you watch the
to begin manufacturing. In 2003, after the wealthy CEO of a competitor, Palm, entire film on Amazon Prime TV. Highly recommended.
We quickly sense that Balsillie is largely ignoring his threatens a hostile takeover of their company, Balsillie *****
guests, anxious instead to return to the important meeting from pulls out all the stops and on his own pushes a sales Note: This is not the first time that I watched a film I
which he had excused himself to meet with them, planning effort of so many Blackberry phones that it overwhelms considered serious, even sad, only to learn that it was being
to rejoin it with the intention of making a move to selfishly Verizon’s capacity to handle the communications traffic. touted as, at least in part, a comedy! A film I reviewed some
advance his own self-interest over that of one of his associates. He responds by pouring millions of dollars into the months ago, The Menu, was very dark, yet was entered in
Although somewhat intrigued by the PocketLink pockets of the nation’s most expert telecommunications the comedy category by its studio for an Academy Award!
concept, Balsillie cuts this meeting short and dismisses engineers to solve the problem. Now it turns out that Blackberry has been named as “one
his guests, who return disappointed to their office with Along the way, in 2007, he fires Doug – one of of the best comedy-dramas ever to come out of Canada.”
the bad news to their employees. The atmosphere lightens, the original partners – who resents when a new Chief To me, it is closer to tragedy than comedy. 

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