Purpose

The best summary of the dotbomb era yet produced. Unfortunately, the appeal of this very articulate movie will always be very narrow. Those who were not caught up in the dotcom scam will probably not understand the profundity of the points presented. But for those of us Silicon Valley folk who were caught up in the explosive hypergrowth of the late 1990s, this movie serves as an excellent synopsis of what turned out to be one of the biggest equities scams in human history. Some of the most intelligent people on the planet lost sight of their live's goals and purpose, putting sustainable ventures on hold in pursuit of the quick score, gambling sustainable lifestyles in pursuit of the big win, sinking life savings (and kids' college funds, home equity, etc) in speculative ventures and questionable ideas, then losing everything when the sharks pulled out and the pyramid collapsed around those not smart enough to have pulled out.

Purpose. Awesome move, a must see for anyone in the technology field, or for anyone who lived through the insanity of the dotbomb scam.

I saw this movie recently - I had heard about it via the grapevine and was not sure what to expect - I was very impressed. The art direction in this movie was excellent and the story line kept me interested all the way through. The main song that was featured a few times was very catchy. All in all I thought it was a highly provocative movie with an important message. We all need a sense of purpose.

That this film has such a low IMDb rating is not surprising. In our post-Enron era, do we really need any more reminders of America's obsession with the greed creed? The topic has become so politically charged that a lot of viewers not only are not going to be entertained by movies of this sort, but will respond with barely concealed rage. It was all I could do to sit quietly through this cinematic memo of corporate corruption without extracting the DVD and smashing it into a thousand pieces.

What's really irksome with these kinds of films, including "Purpose", is their pretense that behind the glitter, there's some meaningful message that makes the film worthwhile. In "Purpose", I found no such meaningful message. What I did find was a story that idolized the materialistic trappings of capitalistic power and wealth. The two main characters, nauseating in their glibness, do very little actual work. Instead, they party, they play golf, they strut their coolness, they sound "hip" with dialogue straight out of MTV-culture-speak: "rock my world", and "Now get back to partying; that's an order". John is smug, self-important, shallow, and smirks a lot. Robert, who wears funky little glasses, is even worse.

The film includes two youthful garage geeks, who look and sound like they're right out of the film "Antitrust" (2001). Stereotypes are played for all they're worth, and in this film also include chic-looking computer equipment, and Barbie doll chicks on hand for those occasions when our can-do future billionaires need some relaxation after all that heavy-duty partying. And with the time-bound images and dialogue that such a story necessitates, can you imagine how dated this film will be in fifteen years?

About the best I can do for this waste of cinematic celluloid is to say that it does have some nice aerial views of San Francisco. The film would have been a lot more enjoyable, a lot more entertaining, if they had ditched those odious characters and that repulsive story, and simply flown us viewers around in that little plane for the film's duration.

About the only good thing I can say about "Purpose" is it does try to deliver a message about what's important in life on the heels of a boom/bust cycle of a new generation of materialistic status-oriented X-gen yuppies with dot-coms in their eyes. As a film, "Purpose" tries too hard to be hip with a script packed with buzz words and comtempo cliches and some guy who looks like Ray Liotta's kid as an upwardly mobile hotshot Bill Gates wannabee in the lead. Obviously the product of a newbie auteur, "Purpose" doesn't build much depth in its characters, is waaaay too cute, and seems to be little more than a slick new wrapper on an old story. Pass on this one unless maybe you're a computer geek who aspires to be another Micheal Dell or Steve Jobs. (C)

Purpose, as a whole, does a good job of showing how money, power, and life in the fast lane during the dot.com boom in San Francisco can corrupt even those with good intentions. Jeffery Donovan (Robert) is great as the smooth talking deal closer that visionary John Elias (newcomer John Light) hires to help start the company. Paul Reiser, hardly recognizable as the mentor and friend to John, is funny and adds a lot to the film. Mia Farrow looks stunning, yet believable as the financial mogul out to make some money off the new company. Hal Holbrook and Peter Coyote add to the film, if nothing else than recognizable faces and steady acting. The film looks amazing, with fantastic shots of San Francisco and creative interiors that dominate the new money internet offices. Could be a sleeper hit if all the people who lost their jobs in the dot.com bust want to re-live it. It has a deep meaning behind the story of quality over quantity. I'd recommend it.