Written by Matt Whiteley, the movie is bookended by scenes of the middle-aged Jobs, doing what some believed he did best: pitching new products. Fuzzed up and hunched over, Mr. Kutcher looks somewhat like the young Jobs, and there are moments — as when he gives another character a small, devious look as if sliding in a knife — that the casting seems more than a matter of bottom-line calculation. But Mr. Kutcher doesn』t have the tools that some actors use to transcend weak material and either he didn』t receive any help or didn』t allow any real direction from Mr. Stern. Mr. Kutcher』s tendency to cap so many emotional scenes with small, self-satisfied smiles is especially unfortunate because they can』t help but bring to mind his other career as a pitchman for digital cameras.
sliding in a knife，这个要是你没有看到过类似的表达，你大概完全猜不出它到底是什么意思，事实上sliding knife是一种刀，中文应该叫伸缩刀（滑刀？还是啥？不确定，就是可以伸缩的，可以直接pop out，刀片从刀鞘里突出来），联系前面的 small, devious look，这里说的应该是乔布斯的演员盯著别人看的时候，那透露出恶意的小眼神就像伸缩刀的刀片一样，锋利且危险，时不时突出来要你命的那种，你感受一下，这种类似的玩文字游戏（还有双关等、）的把戏在这文章里多次出现，没有熟悉这种写法的读者就不能顺畅阅读，但多读几篇我想问题应该不大。
transcend weak material ，辞汇三千的都知道这两个词（软物质），相对应strong material，前者是如布、羊毛纱这类的东西，后者是如玻璃杯这类的东西，就是指物质的软硬程度，但这里肯定不是软物质，超越软物质？傻子都知道不是这个意思，所以这时一个读多了的老油条就知道放飞想像力了，前面作者刚刚嘲讽过库彻（乔布斯演员）演技不行，这里接著便写到，但他又没有Tools去transcend weak material ，所以老司机可以脑补出来，就是演技不行，还没有其它法子去战胜这个缺点，接著作者又立刻解释原因了，either he didn』t receive any help or didn』t allow any real direction from Mr. Stern.（要么他不接受帮助，或者他不接受Stern给他的任何指导，:-)活该演技烂啊！）
cap sth with sth，一般读者知道cap有帽子的意思，有些还知道有山顶的意思，比如snow-capped(顶部被雪覆盖的),我给翻成白雪皑皑，多有情调啊:-)，但你要是想像力不够丰富的话，cap so many emotional scenes with small, self-satisfied smiles 直译成 用自我满足的笑去盖住情感的场景 ，我去，鬼知道这是什么！你应该有想像力一点，给译成 尤其不幸的是，库彻碰到感情戏只会用那自鸣得意的假笑敷衍了事，让人忍不住想起这家伙之前就是个推销数码相机的。
