Sublimating middle class dreams of rebellion into business success creates a surface tranquility. Newsweek writes that "Citizen Case may understand the wired age the way the cinematic Citizen Kane grasped the potential of the tabloid newspaper, but inquiring reporters are not likely to find any Rosebud buried in his past."

But like Kane — or James Dean's character in Giant — the high-tech exec may have found that success brings nothing but a glitzy void.

Late at night, stalked by an unfulfilled longing for superstar status, does Case wander his mansion, haunted by little boy dreams?