The Social Network (2010)

This film was recommended to me a while ago but like most things lately, it’s taken me an age to get around to watching it. And I must say I was very impressed with it. Directed by David Fincher (Alien 3, Fight Club, Se7en, The Game), the film chronicles the development of Facebook and the legal battle that ensued because of the epic levels of corporate backstabbing that took place during its early days. Truly the film is a mostly accurate telling of the site that rewove the fabric of society even as it unravelled the friendships of its creators.

There were a couple of reasons I liked it so much really – the first being Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg. Somehow he manages to convey a synergy between uber nerd and ice cool that I’ve never seen before – and it works. His character is just awesome. In fact the arrogance his character displays when dealing with others throughout the movie is above par legendary. Some of the quips are hilarious such as when being sued by the Winklevoss brother’s – “You know, you really don't need a forensics team to get to the bottom of this. If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook.” or when asked by a lawyer if he was paying attention during his deposition “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. [pauses] Did I adequately answer your condescending question?”.

Other characters in the movie are similarly great. Justin Timberlake puts in a decent performance as Sean Parker and manages to convey the appropriate level of douchebaggery for his character although now that I think about it, I’m not sure he was acting. Not really I’m just talking shit because his ex-girlfriends are Cameron Diaz and Jessica Biel, what a rank A bastard. Andrew Garfield who plays Eduardo Saverin is the tragic character of the film who assists Zuckerberg in founding what is to become a business empire only to get royally fucked over at the first hurdle.

The film does take some artistic licence with the way events really unfolded in real life but I personally feel they add to the point that the film is trying to make – which is the perhaps cliché money can’t buy you happiness idea. I agree more with Woody Allen that no it can’t but it gets you a damn good bargaining position, but that’s just me. The film illustrates this best by showing Mark at the end sat alone in front of the website he created sending a friend request to the girl he betrayed at the beginning. In a way the ending feels kind of tragic and bittersweet.

The soundtrack is perfect for the film and utilises some of the 8 bit samples from games like Mario to give it the digital effect. The cinematography is similarly beautiful. And finally – this probably wouldn’t have been a gripe for many but it’s something I had to congratulate this film on because I’ve never seen it in any film that involves computers ever – an accurate portrayal of what computer hacking actually involves instead of the graphical bullshit seen in films like hackers and swordfish. Wow he was actually using Linux and referred to things like PHP script, PERL and EMACS. Even the code on screen looked accurate from what I could glean as did the CBA factor when something was evidently going to be too much of a pain in the arse to do.

Overall this is a cinema landmark and an exceptionally well told story for something that could otherwise be considered quite a boring and dry tale that no one would really care about. IMDB Rating: 8.1 / 10