A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Hummingbird Project” (2019).
Bob the Movie Man’s Rating:
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R.
What a curious little film this is.
The Hummingbird Project is a do-or-die mission for two cousins – Vincent Zaleski (Jesse Eisenberg) and Anton Zaleski (Alexander Skarsgård) – who hatch a plan to run a fibre-optic communications link in a straight line – regardless of swamps, national parks and Appalachian Mountains – between exchanges in Wall Street and Kansas. It currently takes 17 milliseconds for information to get between the two sites. If the team can cut that to 16 milliseconds, floods of market trades will come their way and they will make millions.
“The line” – the opening scene of the film. (Source: Item 7 / Belga Productions).
The problem is that Vinny and Anton work in a trading organisation for cut-throat boss Eva Torres (Salma Hayek), so their behind the scenes plotting is at least disloyal and at worst borderline criminal.
As the pair Quixotically proceed to buy up land rights and drill horizontal holes, funded by speculative but equally dollar-focused invester Bryan Taylor (Frank Schorpion), will Torres reap her revenge on the pair?
Vinny (Eisenberg) and Anton ( Skarsgård ) awaiting the chop (and a chopper). (Source: Item 7 / Belga Productions).
Will appeal to a limited demographic.
To really enjoy this film you need to get excited about the prospect of saving a millisecond. Or the joy of understanding the importance of tolerances in electronic components. And it helps if you are an engineering boff that gets moist at the sight of heavy machinery doing what it does best.
I fit the bill for at least two out of these three, so overall I enjoyed the film. But I appreciate that this is a Venn diagram that will have a relatively small percentage of the population in the overlap. That doesn’t mean a lack of broad appeal makes it a bad film (although the executive producers might disagree). If the only measure was “mass appeal” then every film would be a remake of “Avengers: Endgame“.
Not a comfortable air traveller. Anton sweating in economy. (Source: Item 7 / Belga Productions)
A story that also runs against the grain.
Notwithstanding the subject matter, the essence of the story also runs against the normal Hollywood grain. To say more here would be a spoiler, so I will leave comment to a SPOILER SECTION that is below the trailer. (Don’t scroll down if you haven’t seen the film!)
It all felt to me like this should have been a true story. I was waiting at the end of the opening titles for the card saying “Based on a true story” and during the end credits for the jolly old pictures of the real life Zaleski’s and the ‘evil’ (read, business professional!) Torres. But no. It would have been a much stronger movie if it HAD been based on fact, but this was 100% a work of fiction.
Jacuzzi; beautiful woman leaning over it; “Please no bubbles, please no bubbles…” (Source: Item 7 / Belga Productions)
The cast.
Jesse Eisenberg seems to be a one-trick pony. Here he could be Zuckerberg again, in a slightly parallel field. He gets the chance to act (due to a plot point we won’t go into here) but still failed to connect with me.
It was Alexander Skarsgård in a role completely out of his normal niche, that impresses most. He’s nerdy, nervy and paranoid, with a strong dose of programmer’s Asperger’s. Locked in his darkened hotel room with nothing for company but a drum of fibre-optic cable, he impressively demonstrates the despair of failure and the joy – with memorable dance moves – of success.
Also good was Michael Mando (from the Spiderman reboots) as their drilling guru Mark Vega.
The actor I wanted to see more of was Salma Hayak. Following on, a week later, from Emma Thompson‘s broadcaster in “Late Night“, Eva Torres is another colourful female executive, cum hatchet-woman, that we don’t see enough of on screen (I used to work for one, so it’s a role I recognise well!). But although Hayak’s role starts strongly it just fizzles out.
Never get between a man with a chainsaw and his goal. Vega (Michael Mando) and Vinny (Jesse Eisenberg). (Source: Item 7 / Belga Productions)
Damp squib ending.
I found this an interesting story, but the ending a bit of a damp squib. What might have been barn-storming finale just ends up as a barn-dripping one (arf!).
This was written and directed by Canadian Kim Nguyen, someone new to me. This will undoubtedly be a “Marmite-movie”, with some loving it and some hating it. I was more on the loving side, but it’s not an uplifting watch and the quirkiness of the film never really completely fills that gap.
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_JcTg5mrEY .
Spoiler Section
**Note: Spoilers … not intended for reading before viewing the film! **
The really curious thing about this film is the story arc. A recent Guardian article discussed a “scientific analysis” of the characteristics of movie stories that made them financially successful. It was “man in a hole” (happy-sad-happy) that returned the best income. It would be difficult to even describe this film’s story arc as an “Icarus” film (a rise followed by a fall) – it is a rise followed by a fall followed by a cataclysmic, life threatening and life destroying stumble.
And that’s just on the business story-line…! Throw in the Vinny cancer sub-plot (ooh…. that urination scene… #squirm) and this is less an exciting rollercoaster ride than a freefall without a parachute. You leave the film feeling not a little down in the mouth.
It’s interesting that Hayak’s character (and it really is great to see a strong woman in business featured like this) is nonetheless portrayed as the villain of the piece. It’s a double edged sword. With impressive resource investigation (to find the nerd with the plan) and then dynamically executing on that plan with the microwave towers, she just bettered all the other players. She is the one the film should praise for doing her job so well and winning at life!
