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These days, it seems as though technology gets faster and more powerful on a daily basis, with companies competing to get the tiniest edge and dominate the market. And in The Hummingbird Project, a couple of cousins take on the tech giants in an attempt to strike it rich.
The Hummingbird Project stars Jesse Eisenberg as Vincent Zaleski, a Wall Street trader who dreams of making millions by building a line of fiber-optic cable that travels in a straight line from New Jersey to Kansas to get stock quotes milliseconds faster than the competition. His cousin Anton (Alexander Skarsgård) is the genius behind the project, while Vinnie spends his days wheeling and dealing. But as they race to overcome the obstacles to complete their project, their former boss, Eva Torres (Salma Hayek), is determined to be even faster.
Fueled by greed and grit and cutthroat competition, the cast of eccentric characters tells a fictional tale that seems real. This is the kind of story that you can imagine actually happening: former coworkers who will stop at nothing to win a fierce battle of milliseconds.
The characters definitely have strong personalities, though they’re not especially complex. Vinnie is the typical fast-talking salesman, who will do anything to get the sale. He makes promises that he (and his cousin) can’t keep—and that’s just the beginning of their problems. Though the film later makes an effort to humanize him, it’s not really enough to balance out his ruthlessness and arrogance. Hayak’s Eva, meanwhile, is every bit as arrogant and ruthless. But, just like Vinnie, she doesn’t feel especially human.
It’s Skarsgård’s Anton, then, who’s the heart and soul of the film. He’s an eccentric and awkward genius with a tendency to get so buried in his work that he forgets to leave his room or call his family. He’s sweet and increasingly paranoid—but there’s more to him than you might expect.
The battle between these characters is certainly an intense one. The greatest problem, however, is that it gets so bogged down in jargon and technical details that will go well over the heads of any viewers who aren’t incredibly tech-savvy (and probably even some who are). It’s clear that what’s going on here is a big deal, but the filmmakers never really establish the urgency and value of the project—and without that development, viewers may find it hard to become invested in the story of ones and zeroes and thousandths of a second.
Of course, if you’re well-versed in the digital world, you may get caught up in The Hummingbird Project. There’s clearly a lot going on here, but unless you understand the technical details, it’s not especially captivating.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
