Blackberry Tale Is 'Irresistible'

The story of BlackBerry's rise and fall is as irresistible as the so-called CrackBerry was upon its debut in 1996, according to audiences and critics alike, who give the new BlackBerry film 94% and 98% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes respectively. Director and co-writer Matt Johnson also stars as Doug Fregin, one half of a nerdy creator duo completed by Mike Lazaridis, played by Jay Baruchel. They team up with Jim Balsillie, played by Glenn Howerton of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame, to sell an all-in-one phone, pager, camera, and email device they've dreamed up in Canada in a move that changes everything. Here's what critics are saying:

• It's "a movie must-see, a raucous workplace comedy (think The Office) about the sadly true story of the stratospheric rise and spectacular flame-out of the world's first smartphone," writes Peter Travers at ABC News. Johnson excels both as a director and actor, but Howerton is "sensational, scene-stealing," Travers writes. "His meltdown in a phone booth when he doesn’t get his way is pure comic gold."
• "Howerton delivers the kind of performance that can make a career, or force audiences to totally reconsider an actor's potential," writes Peter Debruge at Variety. He's "the MVP in an all-around terrific ensemble," with Baruchel and Johnson's characters resembling "overgrown toddlers." But the film—"a Canadian story, told by Canadian filmmakers"—"is surprisingly charitable to the parties involved" and ultimately makes "geek history more entertaining than it has any right to be."

• Peter Howell of the Toronto Star agrees Howerton is "the MVP" but adds the film represents "a new career peak for Johnson," who "finds gold in the tragicomic account of how 'the best phone in the world' became just another piece of plastic junk in a desk drawer." Though the movie is "hard to keep up with at times" through the emergence of rivals from PalmPilot to iPhone, SEC investigations, and attempts to purchase NHL teams, it's good enough for a rating of 3.5 stars out of four.
• Randy Myers at the San Jose Mercury News offers the same rating. "Filled with great period details and told in a docudrama-like way, BlackBerry is simply irresistible," he writes. Howerton "triumphs as tantrum-prone Canadian businessman James Balsillie, who carves out a huge slice of the company pie and shouts and bellows with the best of them." His "style of business is the very antithesis" of Lazaridis, "played well" by Baruchel, he adds. All in all, it's a "massively entertaining ride."

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