Rated PG-13 (Sexual Content, Drug and
Alcohol Use and Language)
Running Time: 2 Hours
Cast-
Jesse Eisenberg-Mark Zuckerberg
Andrew Garfield-Eduardo Saverin
Justin Timberlake-Sean Parker
Armie Hammer-Cameron Winklevoss
Josh Pence-Tyler Winklevoss
Max Minghella-Divya Narendra
Patrick Mapel-Chris Hughes
Joseph Mazzello-Dustin Moskovitz
Rooney Mara-Erica Albright
Brenda Song-Christy Lee
Rashida Jones-Marylin Delpy
Dakota Johnson-Amelia Ritter
Douglas Urbanski-Larry Summers
Wallace Langham-Peter Thiel
Bryan Barter-Billy Olson
Steve Sires-Bill Gates
Directed by David Fincher
 |
| "Did I adequately answer your condescending question?" |
When we look back through the last ten
years, one of the most defining attributes is the rise of the social networking
site and in particular, Facebook, which currently boasts over five hundred
million active users as of July, 2010. Facebook was launched in 2004 by Mark
Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz in a Harvard
dorm room but the journey toward the site that we know and use today is a
sordid tale of lost friendships, greed, and betrayal as recounted in Ben
Mezrich’s 2009 nonfiction book, The
Accidental Billionaires. David Fincher’s latest film “The Social Network”
recounts the tumultuous first years of Facebook’s founding and the resulting
lawsuits that followed. However, do not mistake this for a documentary. As it
takes inspiration from Mezrich’s book, where Saverin served as a consultant,
the details are skewed against Zuckerberg’s favor yet no one can deny his
ambition and genius. “The Social Network” is a highly engrossing picture that
boasts amazing writing and direction but it’s the excellent performances that cements
its status as one of the best, if not the
best, film of 2010.
Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), a Harvard
University student, is having dinner with his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney
Mara) where he reveals his desire to join an exclusive Final Club but she
breaks up with him when he unintentionally insults her about sleeping with the
doorman and going to Boston University, which he feels is less academically
rigorous. Afterward, Mark rushes back to his dorm room and begins to write an
insulting blog post against Erica on his LiveJournal account while drunk.
Inspired by an offhand comment from one of his roommates, he begins to write
the code for a website dubbed ‘FaceMash,’ which allows users to rate the
attractiveness of the student female body at Harvard. Since there is no unified
directory of all of Harvard’s students and their photos, he hacks into the
databases of various residence halls to download the information. The site goes
live once Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), Zuckerberg’s best (and only)
friend supplies him with a special algorithm. FaceMash becomes highly popular
with over 22,000 hits overnight, causing the entire Harvard network to crash.
Zuckerberg is brought before the Administrative Review Board and is put on six
months academic probation for violating privacy and disrupting security. The
creation of FaceMash catches the attention of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss
(Armie Hammer, Josh Pence), and their business partner Divya Narendra (Max
Minghella) who meet with Zuckerberg about having him work on a social
networking site called Harvard Connection, which will be exclusive to Harvard
students with people joining through invitation only. Zuckerberg agrees but
goes off on his own to create ‘The Facebook,’ with his friend Eduardo putting
up $1000 to start the site. When Facebook finally goes live, the site quickly
becomes popular and angers the Winklevoss’, who believe that Zuckerberg had
stolen their idea. They eventually sue him for theft of intellectual property.
As Facebook expands to more universities, Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin
Timberlake) wants in on the action, driving a wedge between Zuckerberg and
Eduardo. Facebook soon becomes a full-fledged company with the backing of
various investors but as the site is about to reach its one millionth
subscriber, Eduardo realizes that his share of the company has been reduced
from 30% to less than 1%. Furious, he decides to sue his former best friend.
“The Social Network” offers a more-or-less
accurate account of the founding of Facebook and the lawsuits that followed
during the period of October, 2003 to September, 2005, but keep in mind that it
does take liberties for dramatic effect. The film is presented as a series of
flashbacks while Zuckerberg is involved in two separate lawsuit depositions
where he stands accused of cheating his best friend and committing theft of
intellectual property. Although we don’t know whether the film’s version of
Zuckerberg is true to his real-life counterpart, the character as presented by
Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is a multi-faceted individual. There is
no doubt he is a genius and filled with big ideas. Unfortunately, he lacks
humility, coming off as arrogant, over-confident, obsessive, and cold to most
of his peers. He lacks the social graces to be accepted and it’s not hard to
wonder whether he created Facebook to prove to everyone that the nerd whom
everyone vilified at school has become the youngest billionaire ever. While his
actions make him out to be total a**hole, there at times where, thanks to
Eisenberg’s performance, that he looks on at his best friend that is now suing
him with weary and regret. His portrayal of Zuckerberg defies any conventional
praise and is deserving of an Oscar nomination. It also helps that the
rapid-fire dialogue from Sorkin's script keeps the film's momentum going and at
times, darkly comic. Before the credits roll, we're left with an important
question: is Zuckerberg really a jerk or is his behavior the product of his own
genius? I'll leave that for you to ponder.
Andrew Garfield’s (our future Amazing Spider-Man)
Eduardo Saverin is a devoted friend who manages to put up with Zuckerberg’s
idiosyncrasies, much like Wilson and Dr. House on the FOX television show. As
Facebook continues to expand at an exponential rate, Saverin wants Facebook to
start generating revenue through advertising since he is the CFO with a 30%
stake but Zuckerberg refuses because he feels it would ruin the ‘cool’ factor
and exclusivity of the site. He gets pushed further into the background once
the founder of Napster, Sean Parker, whom Justin Timberlake portrays as a
Faustian character, enters the scene and eventually his ownership in Facebook
gets reduced to virtually nothing. Part of the blame lies on Saverin because he
didn’t fully read the contracts before signing as he got caught up with the
excitement of the site going fully incorporated. Like Eisenberg, Garfield’s
Saverin is also full of regret that it had to come to this. It represents a
prime example of how money and greed combined with the cutthroat world of
online business ventures can destroy even the strongest of friendships.
Timberlake defies all expectations and turns in a fine performance as Sean
Parker, charming Zuckerberg with the promise of billions of dollars but at the
cost of his own integrity.
There is no denying that Facebook has
changed the way we communicate but while it has brought millions of people
together, it has also driven them apart as they eschew physical interaction.
The anonymity that the Internet brings has allowed people to create a persona
in which it was not possible or acceptable in the real world. Let’s be real
here, Facebook is an absolute useless tool, an addictive time waster but
Zuckerberg created it to take the ‘entire social experience of college and
putting it online.’ People are naturally curious about other people. They want
to know what kind of friends they have, if they’re in a relationship or not and
Facebook provides that. Yet all this is really on the surface in “The Social
Network” and at its core, it’s about a friendship lost. ‘You don’t get to 500
million friends without making a few enemies.’ Never has a tagline been so
appropriate.
“The Social Network” was released into
theaters on October 1, 2010 to critical acclaim with a whopping 97% on Rotten
Tomatoes, making it one of the few highly rated films of 2010. Critics called
it ‘impeccably scripted, beautifully directed, and filled with fine
performances, [the film] is a riveting, ambitious example of modern filmmaking at
its finest.’ As it is one of most anticipated films of the fall, it should have
no problem coming in number one at the box office with an estimated $25 to $30
million. A Best Picture and Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards is a
no-brainer at this point and it is well-deserved as this is as good as films
come. With “The Social Network,” David Fincher has crafted a crowning
masterpiece that takes themes as old as time itself: friendship and betrayal,
and marries them with the electronic interconnectivity of the world that we
live in such a way that ‘defines the dark irony of the past decade’ (Peter
Travers, Rolling Stone).
Final Rating: 5 out of 5
"I think if your clients want to sit
on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try,
but there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie.
You have part of my attention; you have the minimum amount. The rest of my
attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are
doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients,
are intellectually or creatively capable of doing. Did I adequately answer your
condescending question?"
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