Movie review: “The Social Network” 2 1/2 Stars
“The Social Network” has the ingredients of being a good movie, but if you are not passionate about the Facebook phenomenon it will be hard to call it as such.
The movie is directed by one of Hollywood’s best directors David Fincher, who is best known for the movies like “The strange case of Benjamin Button,” “Zodiac,” ”Seven” and “Fight Club.”
The story of the movie is current and appealing to many, if maybe just as a curiosity if not as pop culture knowledge: the birth of the Facebook and the battle of who came up with the idea first. But the movie title did come with a disclaimer “You don’t get 500 million friends without making a few enemies.”
The movie’s script is witty and intelligent, delivering an entertaining movie under the signature of the screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing,” “Charlie Wilson’s War).
The beginning scene, in which Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is being dumped by his girlfriend, sets up the fast-paced tone for the entire in movie. We have fast dialog, fast movement of the camera from one character to another, fast development of the story, with alternations between past and present events, fast decisions making, creating the impression that everything is in a rush and keeping the audience connected to the screen.
Feeling frustrated and almost hurt, Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard sophomore, hacks into the school computer and crates Facemash, a website that asks students to vote hotness. The site becomes an instant success, with 22 thousands hits in just a couple of hours, crashing the entire Harvard system, sparking a campus-wide controversy over the intentional misogyny and charging Mark with “six months academic probation.”
Shorter after this incident the Winklevgoss twins, Cameron and Tyler (both played by Armie Hammer), are approaching Mark to write the code for HarvardConnection, a social network website that is based on the idea of exclusivity (only people from Harvard were allowed to join) and Zuckerberg agrees to help. Soon after, Mark tells his friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) about his own social network idea, TheFacebook.com, and Eduardo agrees to put a thousand dollars in exchange for the CFO position.
“The social network” is not a movie of great action, but one that depicts characters and through their personalities the action becomes worth watching.
We have Mark Zuckerberg, a narcissistic, arrogant, awkward, but genius Harvard student who believes that in order to have a better life he needs to be accepted by the school’s elitist clubs. He is passionate for what he believes in, but betrays his friend and in the end the price he pays is loneliness. He is condescending and not easily intimidated, even when he stays across the table with his accusers “They came to me with an idea, I had a better one.”
And we have Eduardo, who is a good friend, but he is noncommittal, preferring an internship in New York than to be in Silicon Valley where the business is growing. At the end he is left behind, suing Mark Zuckerberg for his own business misjudgments.
The Winklevgoss twins are behaving as Harvard gentlemen are required to behave, but there are living a nightmare. Their idea is on everybody’s lips, but they are not the ones credited for it. They sue Mark Zuckerberg and win 65 million.
And than we have Napster founder, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) who thinks in “billions” and might just be the Don Quixote of the story, recognizing it as what will later become a 25 billion dollar company.
But the movie is missing the female characters, making me wonder why the only woman with integrity is the insulted one, Mark’s ex girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara), and the rest are just there without any consistency. This only shows me that not just the main character is misogynistic but so are the creators.
“The Social Network” is a movie that has a little bit of everything: truth and fiction, love and hate, money and power, broken dreams and realized passions, good acting and witty conversations, but when you put it all together you realize that so much more could have been done to be better.
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sexual content, drug and alcohol use and language)
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg (Mark Zuckerberg); Andrew Garfield (Eduardo Saverin); Justin Timberlake (Sean Parker); Armie Hammer (Tyler Winklevoss/Cameron Winklevoss); Rooney Mara (Erica Albright); Rashida Jones (Marylin Delpy)
Credits: Directed by David Fincher; written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich; produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Cean Chaffin. A Columbia Pictures release. Running time: 2:00.