the social network

Going in I want to say I heard mixed reviews about “the social network” but as I told those who had trepidations, I would see a movie about the birth of the minivan if David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin were involved so there was no way I was missing this movie. David Fincher is one my favorite directors with a collection of movies under his belt that I marveled at, especially his last one “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. And as a writer myself I love the talents of Aaron Sorkin. His writing is crisp, clean, and littered with humor and irony so when I heard about this project that had these two towering talents involved, I was eager to see it mixed reviews be damned. I’m glad I did because this movie was awesome and those that know me know I don’t use that word much because I hate it. I think it’s overused and has been abused by the burnt out, surfer, pot heads of the word (think Bill & Ted) but in this case the word fits perfectly. It’s awe inspiring and will have you thinking on it for days afterwards much the way “Inception” did. It’s a “talkie” but it’s talking about the one thing we all use pretty much on a daily basis, the phenomenon that is “facebook”.

Based on the book “The Accidental Billionaire” “the social network" tells the story of the origins of facebook from three differing points of view. Those different points of views are told in depositions from those suing Mark Zuckerberg, the man who founded facebook by those he burned along the way. Zuckerberg is played brilliantly by Jessie Eisenberg who gives you the impression that Zuckerberg had a case of Aspergers Syndrome when all this went down. Zuckerberg gets sued by his one and only best friend and initial investor Eduardo Saverin played by Andrew Garfield as well as the Winklevoss twins played by Armie Hammer and their business partner Divya Narendra played my Max Minghella. They initially came up with the foundation of the idea that is facebook.

Zuckerberg comes off as a pompous asshole but you see that this part of his personality all stems from rampant jealousy and insecurity. Zuckerberg so wants to be part of the in crowd and so wants to be cool that he allows Sean Parker the inventor of Napster, played surprisingly well by Justin Timberlake to worm his way in on the ground floor before facebook really takes off. Zuckerberg sees Parker as a God and like Pavlov's dog gives into Parkers wishes and so called guidance without thinking for himself which destroys his friendship with Eduardo Saverin.

The movie starts off with Zuckerberg getting dumped by his then girlfriend Erica Albright and this sets him off. He goes back to his dorm, starts to drink, starts to blog, badmouths Erica and creates a site called "facemash" where Harvard male students can vote on who the hotter girl is in their pics that are side by side. Eduardo makes it into the Phoenix Club and that incites Zuckerbergs jealousy since all he ever really wanted was to be a part of one of Harvards exclusive Final Clubs and it's these two incidents that eat at the core of Mark Zuckerberg or so the movie wants you to think.

Fincher's direction is brilliant. The cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth is dark but the acting is bright and the dialogue is the real star of this movie. The biggest surprise for me though was the score. It was a collaborative effort between Atticus Ross who did the music of the disappointing "Book of Eli" and Trent Reznor, the mad genius behind Nine Inch Nails. The music is pitch perfect and fits the mood nicely. I highly recommend seeing this film, espcially if you are a facebook user (which is exactly where this blog entry will be posted, how's that for irony?). I know I'm seeing it again so....

See you at the theater.