Directed by Austin Chick.
Starring Robin Tunney, Rip Torn, Josh Hartnett, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Adam Scott, Andre Royo, Naomie Harris.
August is like an inverted Langston Hughes poem in movie form. Instead of struggling for the deferred dream, Tom Sterling (Josh Hartnett) is fighting to keep alive a dream that was brought into the world too soon. Unfortunately, his own hubris may get in the way of his goal.
Sterling is the CEO of Landshark, an e-commerce company that does… well… OK, I’m not sure what the company does. But neither do several of the characters in the movie. Sterling launched the company with his brother Josh (Adam Scott) just as the warning signs of the dot.com bubble's impending burst are becoming clear. He’s hailed as a genius and the company’s stock rises as several competitors are crashing. A quick jump to the end of the summer of 2001 and Landshark is foundering due to Tom’s wasteful spending habits, which have blown through the company’s initial capitalization and a lack of customers.On top of all this, is the external problem that by now the dot com bubble has popped and the stock is tanking.
To make matters worse, Tom’s own arrogance prevents him from closing deals. In a meeting with a potential client, Tom refuses to give them a presentation. Instead, he spouts a bunch of babble about how his company is pure “e” and anybody would be a fool to turn him away.
The pressures of the business also flow directly into his personal life. His brother no longer trusts him and is just as desperate to keep the company afloat since he has to pay for a new mortgage and protect his wife and newborn son. Tom's relationship with his parents is also rocky, as he wildly reacts to any negative comments about the business and attacks them for giving up on their own ideals. His one bright spot is his attempt to rekindle a relationship with his ex-girlfriend (Naomie Harris) who has just returned to New York.
This movie really made me think that Josh Hartnett could act, something I've doubted for a long time. The movie rides and falls on Hartnett’s shoulders, since he is almost every scene. You can feel the jittery energy coming off him as his persona of business whiz is cracking and he becomes more and more desperate to keep the business running and, more importantly to him, to be perceived as a success.
Two small roles highlight the fracturing of that self perception. Rip Torn, playing the father of the Landshark brothers, quickly dismisses the entire venture with questions about what the company actually does and his stentorian disapproval of a staff sitting around eating Oreos. Rarely has a cookie stood in for all the disappointment a father could have for his son.
The other is a brief cameo by David Bowie as the venture capitalist who could be the last hope to save the company, but at a ruinous cost. Bowie’s character is so dismissive of Tom Sterling that he barely bothers to look at him when they are finally in the same room.
The one thing that overshadows all of the action in the movie is that the viewer knows that one month after this takes place; all the actions in this movie will be seen as petty and small when compared to the tragedy looming in September 2001.