STEVE JOBS

* * *

(Hollywood version

of Apple founder)

After watching a documentary on Steve Jobs at the Avon last week, I was curious as to how he would be portrayed in a slicker Hollywood version.

Michael Fassbender does a good job in playing the conflicted, often irrational bully in this two-hour production that spends as much time on his relationship with his estranged daughter as it does with his relationship with Apple.

We are also given a closer look at his relationship with his loyal marketing director, Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet), close friend and associate Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) and Apple CEO John Sculley (Jeff Daniels). The movie is filled with emotional conflicts between Jobs and just about everybody he comes in contact with along his rocky road to fame and fortune.

Unlike the documentary, director Danny Boyle chooses to end the story before Jobs’ battle and eventual loss to cancer. Boyle at times leans a bit heavily on the melodramatic, but avoids getting inside the head and heart of this complicated man. Between the documentary and this over-simplification of a very complex man, I know all I want to know about Steve Jobs.

Rated R for profanity.