"THE SOCIAL NETWORK" (2010) Review
“THE SOCIAL NETWORK” (2010) Review
One of the movies that was touted as a strong Oscar contender back in late 2010 and early 2011 was David Fincher’s 2010 movie called ”THE SOCIAL NETWORK”. Based upon Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book about the founding of "Facebook" - "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal" - the movie starred Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield as two of Facebook’s co-founders, Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin.
"THE SOCIAL NETWORK" began in 2003, when Harvard University student, Mark Zuckerberg, came up with the idea to create a website to rate the attractiveness of female Harvard undergraduates, after his girlfriend Erica Albright broke up with him. After downloading photos and names of female students from the various databases of resident halls, Zuckerberg created a website called ”FaceMash” where male students can choose which of two girls presented at a time is more attractive. Zuckerberg’s actions became the catalyst for the creation of ”Facebook”, when his ”FaceMash” site attracted the attention of twin brothers Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss and their friend and partner, Divya Narendra, who hire him as their programmer for their site, ”Harvard Connection”. Instead, Zuckerberg asked his friend Eduardo Saverin to finance a new site he planned to create called ”Thefacebook”, the predecessor to ”Facebook”. Zuckerberg’s new site also attracted the attention of entrepreneur and co-founder of ”Napster”, Sean Parker, of whom Saverin developed a dislike. The website also led to the formation of a new corporation, the end of Zuckerberg and Saverin’s friendship and several lawsuits filed against him.
From a technical point of view, ”THE SOCIAL NETWORK” is an excellent movie. Director David Fincher did an excellent job of making the best of Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay. And the latter portrayed the creation of Facebook and the conflicts of all those involved with a witty and complex story. When I had first saw the trailer for ”THE SOCIAL NETWORK”, I suspected that the movie would portray Zuckerberg as this one-dimensional, arrogant and cold-blooded nerd with an inability to communicate with anyone. Superficially, actor Jesse Eisenberg portrayed the entrepreneur in that manner. But thanks to Fincher’s direction, Sorkin’s script and Eisenberg’s performance, Zuckerberg was portrayed with greater complexity. And I can say the same about the other characters. My only complaint about the movie is that I found the final revelation behind the creation of "Facebook" handled rather awkwardly in a flashback scene.
Aside from Eisenberg’s excellent performance, I was also impressed by Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of ”Facebook” co-founder Eduardo Saverin. Like Eisenberg, he gave a complex portrayal of his character without losing any sympathy. Armie Hammer must have had a ball portraying the Winklevoss twins. I found his performance very energetic and memorable. Rooney Mara was very effective as Erica Albright, the ”girl who got away” and whose rejection of Zuckerberg set in motion the creation of ”Facebook”. But I was truly impressed by Justin Timberlake’s portrayal of ”Facebook consultant and entrepreneur Sean Parker. Eight years ago, I had no idea that the singer had the acting chops to portray such an energetic and complex role. Max Minghella gave a skillful and emotional performance as Divya Narendra, another Harvard student who had been burned by Zuckerberg by the latter's creation of "Facebook". Rashida Jones shined in one brief scene in which her character, a junior attorney named Marilyn Delphy informed Zuckerberg that his attorneys will settle with Saverin. Also, it was interesting to see Joseph Mazello (of ”JURASSIC PARK” and the 2010 HBO miniseries, ”THE PACIFIC”) portraying another ”Facebook” co-founder, Dustin Moskovitz. However, he does not seem to physically resemble the actual person.
From a technical point of view, it is easy to see why ”THE SOCIAL NETWORK” became a front runner for the Academy Awards for a while. It is basically a well made movie with very little flaws. However, it never became a favorite of mine. Why? Quite simply, it left me feeling a little cold. It failed to move me. I found the events of the creation of ”Facebook” and the law suits that followed very interesting . . . but cold. I suspect my lack of emotions over the film has a lot to do with Fincher’s chilly direction and my inability to really care for any of the characters. I like complex characters in fictional or biographical stories a lot. But I found the characters in ”THE SOCIAL NETWORK” simply too chilly and self-involved for my tastes. And Fincher’s direction and Sorkin’s script failed to make me care about them or their situation. Despite my feelings toward the movie, I think it deserved the Best Picture Oscar a lot more than the actual winner for that year, “THE KING’S SPEECH”.