Whatever it takes to keep a techno hellraiser on its feet, The Hummingbird Project doesnt have it. Just dont blame the films two lead actors. Jesse Eisenberg surges with all the manic energy he showed in The Social Network, playing Vincent Zaleski, the hustler behind an idea to run fiber-optic cable from Kansas to a Wall Street databank in New Jersey to gain a millisecond of info advantage the speed of a hummingbirds wing beat that could bring in billions.
Alexander Skarsgrd excels as Vincents cousin Anton, the genius coder behind the idea. The cousins are Russian Jews, raised in New York and looking for a big idea to run with. Playing geek with a vengeance, Skarsgrd shaves his head, walks stooped and does everything possible to dim his hottie starshine. Even that cant distract from the fact that the convoluted script, written by Quebecois director Kim Nguyen (War Witch), keeps tripping over itself in a strenuous effort to drum up interest into a premise that is decidedly uncinematic. Take Eva Torres, the hedge-fund manager played to the hilt and beyond by Salma Hayek, whos eager to steal the tunnel concept from the Zaleskis, who used to work for her. Shes the she-wolf always nipping at their heels and working overtime to trump their plan with her own.
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Wait, Im making the movie sound like way more fun than it is. Nguyen is frequently sidetracked with laying out the logistics of the project as the cousins hire drilling expert Mark Vega (a stellar Michael Mando) and rope in a principal financier in Bryan Taylor (Frank Schorpion). Then theres the matter of getting rights to dig tunnels under everything from national parks to the homes of private citizens (a no-go for the Amish). The minutia weighs a ton and theres lots and lots of drilling.
The films documentary-like attention to detail may lead you to think that The Hummingbird Project is based on a true story. Not a bit, its all a Nguyen flight of fancy. To add a sense of emotional intimacy to the dusty details of high-frequency trading, the filmmaker invents a stomach-cancer crisis for Vincent that he ignores to keep the project on track. And, of course, at the last effing minute, something goes wrong with Antons code. Nguyen can stir up all the sturm and drang he wants, but Hummingbird feels as humdrum and impersonal as a blueprint.