Con’s Score: 2 copper wires
It was the imagery of having big business execs wading through swamps that inspired writer-director Kim Nguyen to write the Hummingbird Project. He was so fascinated with the idea of how feral business people would go to shave a millisecond off of high frequency trading, he researched the idea and soon delved into what it takes to relay signals, drill under lakes and through rock. And this is the adventure he takes us on.
The film starts when two cousins, Vincent Zaleski (Jesse Eisenberg) and introvert and computer genius, Anton Zaleski (Alexander Skarsgard) leave their jobs to lay a line between Kansas and the New York Stock exchange. (You gotta love the obvious Wizard of Oz reference). Vincent is the corporate hustler and Anton is the geek genius trying to shave a millisecond off the information flow – that’s how long it takes the wing of a Hummingbird to beat, and apparently it’s enough to get in front of all other bidders in futures markets and make millions of dollars. I was sceptical, but went with the premise.
Their antagonist is their boss, Eva Torres (Salma Hayek), who will not let them succeed. She goes for microwave technology to beat their direct fibre optic line. This sounds like an Australian NBN debate, and is just about as thrilling. I kept thinking this film would be an electrical engineer’s idea of porn, minus the pool cleaner, but I kept hoping he’d turn up.
To accentuate the drama, Vincent discovers he has cancer, but of course, it’s not as important as making money. Some Amish people are thrown in to highlight the contrast between their antiquated ways and the new world of ruthless progress, just in case you haven’t realised these capitalists aren’t going to stop at anything. They’re already trying to drill through a granite mountain, so some farmers with ethics aren’t going to stop them.
I’m not sure why this is a revelation to Nguyen. He obviously hasn’t worked in business or followed politics very closely. Discovering the lack of ethics in business isn’t as interesting as challenging the ‘why’. He can try and explain it as simple people wanting simple dreams, but I lost that message under the sound of crashing trees.
This all puts us in the uncomfortable position of watching our protagonists being ruthless wreckers of the environment in the pursuit of a millisecond and millions of dollars. There’s a top cast to try and engage us, and a funky soundtrack to reel us in, but I was never convinced. Hayek looks out of place and this is a one note performance. Eisenberg and Skarsgard are capable and convincing, and almost grab our sympathies.
I felt I was standing well outside the perimeter watching fools frolic and wondering if they’d perish before their epiphanies hit. What is a revelation to these characters was the inevitability of reality for me. And I can’t applaud if they have redemption thrust upon them, rather than it being a choice.
It’s only the very final scenes that might move you, but even then, their actions are too weak. I walked away none the wiser… while director Nguyen might have marvelled at these images, he should have looked further to see if he was educating himself on the bleeding obvious rather than revealing anything new. Ruthless business people will walk through swamps for a million bucks. Who knew? My only questions are: “Who wouldn’t? And unless I was protesting, why would I care?”
Con Nats, On The Screen
