El proyecto colibrí

I liked this movie a lot. Don't pay much attention to ratings, watch it and decide for yourself, I'm glad I did that. Good movie.

I was interested to see this having read Micheal Lewis non-fiction book Flash boys and if I didn't know better I would say this book had just taken the premise of that book and tried to put a fiction film around the basics of it.

The technology is close to real life and quite interesting, plus the size of the project is quite something to see.

However the plot is just about ok if a little ridiculous at times and the story lacks a build up of any tension or suspense so is just a bit flat.

Cousins Vincent (Eisenberg) and Anton (Skarsgard) quit their trading jobs and want to make a fiber cable tunnel from Kansas to Wall Street in New York. The plan is to dig underground all the way, through rivers, mountains and the like; and yes, they will pay the owners of property to drill under their lands. The speed to do this between Kansas and NY is calculated at 17 milliseconds, but they need to cut that to 16-milliseconds. And you will like this: the speed of a single flap of a hummingbird's wing is 16-milliseconds. So now you understand the title. Their former boss Eva Torres (Salma Hayek) is furious for them leaving, and will do her best to upset their plans. Oh, oh.

The undertaking of this project means a lot of money to do what is needed and the money is funded by Brian Taylor (Frank Schorpion) who is a big time trader on Wall Street, but who also wonders if he can trust Vincent.

Vincent is the hustler and Anton is the coding genius who tries for most of the movie to get the transaction speed down to 16 -milliseconds, and if this is done, then their transactions can beat all other traders and millions will be made.

What keeps us engaged are the acting performances of Eisenberg and Skarsgard. There isn't anything else. This is a slow roll with Vincent trying to get leases signed so they can dig under property and Anton going crazy with coming up with a code to get the speed down to 16-milliseconds, and by doing this he also ignores his family.

A major obstacle comes about when they need to dig under Amish Land. Another major obstacle comes about when Eva puts up cell towers.

Notables: Sarah Goldberg as Mascha, Anton's wife; Michael Mando as Mark, a partner with Vincent and Anton; Johan Heldenbergh as the Amish Elder.

So if you are interested in seeing that the boys make digital information faster between Kansas and New York this is for you, otherwise this is a slow roll. Again, it's the acting of Eisenberg and Skarsgard that will keep you in your seat. Skarsgard may be a candidate for a Best Supporting Actor. (7/10)

Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: No. Language: Yes. Rating: B

"The Hummingbird Project" (2018 release from Canada); brings the story of cousins Vinnie and Anton. As the movie opens, we are at the offices of "Torres & Thathcher, New York, October, 2011", where Vinnie and Anton both work as data analysts. Unbeknownst to their boss Eva Torres, Vinnie and Anton are planning to leave and branch out on their own, as they have found a way (or so they think) to get data from the Kansas Electronics Exchange a millisecond faster than everyone else by building a 4 inch fiber tunnel in a straight line from Kansas to New York. Of course, this involves many legal and practical challenges. Off they go... At this point we are 10 min into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this movie is written and directed by little known (on the US side anyway) Canadian Kim Nguyen. Here he brings a story that could have a major impact on how stocks are traded on Wall Street. Within minutes, it is clear that the vibe Nguyen is going for is Adam McKay's "The Big Short". In and of itself there is nothing wrong with that. Except that here, it simply doesn't work all that well. First of all, we need to make a leap of faith that stick traders getting data in 16 milliseconds rather than 17 milliseconds (think about that) will cause a tornado in the stock markets. Second, the movie makes a number of side bars that divert from the major story line (sorry, I don't want to divulge more than that). On the plus side, the movie is helped enormously by the lead performances. Jesse Eisenberg (as Vinnie) and, even better, an almost unrecognizable Alexander Skarsgård (as Anton) truly carry the film on their shoulders. Salma Hayek's screen time (as Eva Torres) is all too brief, unfortunately. Bottom line: the movie is not bad per se, but neither is is compelling. It all feels like a lost opportunity.

"The Hummingbird Project" premiered at last Fall's Toronto International Film Festival to so-so acclaim, and the movie now is getting a limited theater release. It opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and the Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended poorly (8 people, including myself). I can't see this playing in the theater for more than just a few weeks. If you are interested in a "Big Short"-wanna-be that falls, well, a bit short but that has its moments, I encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater (if you can), or VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgard are entrepreneurs who undertake an audacious venture to deliver a fiber optic cable from Kansas to the New York Stock Exchange that is faster than all the other portals by just enough to make a staggering difference in market returns. In choosing to take this gamble, they wind up using valuable information obtained from working for their former boss (an effectively domineering Salma Hayek) whom they now find is their competition.

Although this is a well-acted film, its momentum is a bit erratic. The storyline never loses its energy but the plot sometimes takes peculiar detours. This ambitious enterprise is fraught with the emotional imbalance of its two dissimilar protagonists, one a highly calculating salesman (Eisenberg) and the other a neurotic computer wiz (Skarsgard). We discover that each one has motivations of his own. As considerable opposites, they keep the film's dynamic engaging.

Some of the film's best moments are when these two aspiring masters of the universe find the core principles behind their work being challenged by the citizenry they cross paths with. The film takes a mild-mannered look at the ethics of the project but mostly lets the audience judge for itself. Recommended as workmanlike filmmaking on obscure but compelling material.