On Wall Street, you can be rich one day and be bankrupt the next. Adding in the rise of technology and the speed of communication and the level of competition gets even more intense. It is amazing how having even a one millisecond advantage could be worth millions in no time at all, and with “The Hummingbird Project, there is a film that deals with that very issue.
Written and directed by Kim Nguyen (War Witch, Truffe), this film stars Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Alexander Skarsgard (The Legend of Tarzan), Salma Hayek (Frida), Michael Mando (Orphan Black) and Frank Schorpion (Arrival) and revolves around Vincent (Eisenberg) and his cousin, Anton (Skarsgard). They both work for Eva Torres (Hayek), who runs one of the biggest trading houses, but when Vincent comes up with an idea to put in a underground fiber optic line that goes straight from the Kansas City Stock Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange (which would give the best advantage of receiving the Wall Street financial information) after they quit their jobs, Eva finds out about the plan and comes up with an idea of her own.
I truly liked the way this film was shot, from the city scenes in New York to the outdoor scenes where they were working on putting the pipeline underground. Many of the outdoor scenes were done when it was overcast, which truly complimented the story. Hayek and Eisenberg give good performances, which is expected from them, but my shout out has to go to Skarsgard as the anti-social and almost computer like coder who had an emotional level that was off the chart.
At just under two hours, “The Hummingbird Project” kept me interested and did not drag much. There are some fast moving moments considering the subject material, and even though the story is fictional, I am willing to bet that there was a certain level of realism to what was really going on in the early 2010s. I was interested when I saw the trailer for this film, and my expectations were met, but not exceeded, so I will recommend this film as an afternoon showing in the theaters.