The Social Network

When I first heard that the story of Facebook was being turned into a movie, my first reaction was to view this project as a shameless cash-in on the recent internet phenomenon. I didn’t expect to be even mildly interested in watching it. However news broke that it’s being directed by David Fincher, who happens to be one my favourite directors and the awesome screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, my levels of expectation for this movie rose exponentially. Between the two of them, they are responsible for the likes of Fight Club, Se7en, A Few Good Men and TV’s West Wing. When Jessie Eisenberg was cast to play the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, I was counting down the days.

The plot of the movie is based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires” and loosely follows the events surrounding the early days of Facebook, from Mark’s first attempts at creating a social network at Harvard to becoming the world’s youngest billionaire.  The events in the movie zigzag between the recent legal battles that Mark Zuckerberg was involved in, and the early Harvard days during which Facebook was invented. The legal scenes are extremely well written and showcase Sorkin’s incredible talent at writing exciting and witty dialogue. The two depositions shown in the film frame the story nicely, and are memorable and pacy, without taking over the story. One of the movie’s biggest strengths is that it lets you make up your own mind about whether Mark is a hero or a villain.  We get presented with the alleged facts and then encouraged to draw our own conclusions about the motivation of various people and the though process behind some of the key decisions they make.

Jessie Eisenberg is absolutely outstanding as Mark Zuckerberg and really nails the personality of a socially inept, yet somehow likeable geek. Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake (yes, that’s right, he’s a serious actor now) also give excellent performances in their supporting roles. Garfield is supposed to be the next “big thing” in Hollywood, having been cast as the new Spider-Man, while Timberlake has already proved in Alpha Dog that he has some serious talent when it comes to acting and that he isn’t just another singer trying to ride his fame (yes Mariah Carey, stick to singing!) Fincher is usually known for being technically very sophisticated and masterful, and while he keeps things fairly simple here, he captures the mood of the film perfectly.

If you like Fincher’s movies, and don’t mind the slightly slower build up, you will love this film. I would surprised if the academy don’t give this one a nod at the next Oscars as this is truly one of the best dramas of the year. I can’t fault this movie in any way, and I would recommend this to anyone, from movie aficionados to people that just want to find out how Facebook came about.

Rating: 5/5