The Social Network Review

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?"