The Social Network

The Social Network is a fast paced, gripping, thoroughly entertaining roller coaster ride of a movie. It tells a big story but it starts out small, in a bar just down the street from Harvard, where Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his girlfriend, Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), are having a conversation – more like an argument – over a couple of beers, discussing Mark’s intense desire to join one of Harvard’s exclusive social clubs. The dialogue is so sharp, so witty, and so fast paced that I actually leaned forward in my seat to catch it all, and as soon as the scene was over I wanted to watch it again. And that wasn’t even the best part of the film.

The Social Network is, more than anything else, the story of one young man’s outsized drive and determination to pursue an idea. “The Facebook” is a narrow concept at first: “I want to take the entire social experience of college and put it online” Zuckerberg explains, and he starts out only allowing Harvard students access to the site, but he quickly sees the value of opening it up to other colleges, and then to the world, essentially putting the entire social experience of everyone online. The film shows the early, frantic days of programming in Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room, and then follows Facebook’s founder when he leaves school and heads boldly off to Silicon Valley, quickly evolving from wunderkind to titan. It’s a big story but it’s told on a really personal level, Zuck hanging out in his shabby dorm room with his geeky roommates, swigging beer and trying to come up with an online experience that will make his brainy upscale classmates take notice.

But there’s fallout, naturally – whenever anyone comes up with a new idea there is someone else who claims to have thought of it first. So the film time shifts back and forth between the high energy, untamed story of Facebook’s invention, and deadly quiet legal conference rooms where wounded parties demand that Zuckerberg give them their share of the wealth. Among the plaintiffs is Eduardo Saverin, played with tremendous honesty and vulnerability by soon-to-be-Spiderman Andrew Garfield. In the film, Saverin is Zuckerberg’s best friend and collaborator, but their visions for the direction of Facebook drive them apart – or, more accurately, lead Mark to push Eduardo away. Eduardo is particularly unhappy when Zuckerberg decides to take advice from Sean Parker, the inventor of Napster who has very big picture ideas for the future of Facebook. (Parker is played by Justin Timberlake in a serious star turn. The guy is great.)

Is The Social Network an truthful depiction of the founding of Facebook? Probably on some levels. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin says he was writing a good story, not a factually accurate account. But he also says that the filmmaking team got close enough to the truth to make sure that the bottle of beer movie Zuck pulls from his dorm room ‘frig is the same kind that the real Zuckerman preferred. Jesse Eisenberg watched YouTube videos of Facebook’s founder in order to nail his carriage and mannerisms, although he built the character from the script, not real life research. (Eisenberg does tremendous work here, creating a kind of geek anti-hero that we can’t help but root for, even when he is at his most ruthless. I hope he gets an Oscar nod.) But while the film may not be completely accurate it is always completely authentic; director David Fincher pulls you into the action and makes you believe.  Don't see The Social Network to learn the truth about the founding of Facebook; see it because it is a terrific film, a great cinematic thrill ride. Playing everywhere. A

Photo credit: Relativity Media