The Social Network Review: Great Acting, Superb Writing, Worth Seeing

I found The Social Network fascinating. I’d guess only a small percentage of the story is 100% accurate, but wow. It’s enough to make me realize I could never make it in the big, bad world of business.

Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg), is a brilliant Harvard student. Like many brilliant folks, his social skills are lagging and, at times, downright inappropriate. He’s obsessed with getting into the important social clubs, enamored with those computer geniuses that have gone before him, and generally willing to do pretty much anything to improve his circumstances. When his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara) breaks up with him due to his insensitivity, he needs a way to loose his anger.

Aside: She dumps him with one of my favorite lines in a while. This is a paraphrase. I’m good, but not that good. “You’re going to go through your entire life thinking girls won’t date you because you’re a nerd. I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that’s not true. It’s because you’re an asshole.”

He runs home and gets drunk, then blogs about what a poor, lying, bitch Erica is. In a second stroke of brilliance, he slips through Harvard’s network security, steals photos of their students, and builds a site on which people can vote for which girl is hotter. He gets in trouble, of course, and displays the erratic, clueless side of his personality by suggesting to the board they should thank him for pointing out their network security issues.

The girls of Harvard are, understandably, not happy about being objectified in this manner and Mark becomes something of a hated celebrity. A couple of rowers, twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer), hire Mark to help them launch a website. Their idea is a social network for all Harvard students – like a dating site for the University. The boys are part of one of the Final clubs Mark is dying to be a part of, but though they want to use his brain, they have no intention of asking him to join the brotherhood.

The idea for the Facebook is born from the idea of the Harvard dating site, but Mark needs money. Enter his wealthy (and only) friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), who thinks the Facebook is a great idea and provides Mark the startup cash he needs.

The Facebook goes live and the $#%@ hits the fan when it catches on and the Winklevoss brothers find out. They eventually decide to sue Mark for stealing their idea/intellectual property. Mark promises Eduardo he didn’t use any of their code, and that the Facebook was his idea – an improvement and expansion on their dating site.

The Facebook catches on. It grows, gets into more and more college campuses and, as we know, eventually lose their connection to Universities all together. Along the way, tension develops between Eduardo and Mark on the issue of advertisers. Eduardo wants to make money. Mark thinks ads will kill the “cool” factor.

Enter Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the founder of Napster. He’s also presented as an incurable playboy and drug addict; a questionable business partner at best. I had no idea Sean Parker had a stake in Facebook until I saw this film, but he uses his influence over Mark to eventually oust Eduardo. We’re left wondering if Mark hasn’t been taking his revenge on those who have what he doesn’t – the social standing, the money, and the invitations to the right clubs.

Oddly enough Mark, who created a network of “friends” ends up with none of his own.

Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay, and it’s well done. The dialogue and pacing is excellent, each character’s motivation is clear and unwavering in every single scene. I’m not sure I liked the flipping back and forth between the lawsuit with Eduardo, the lawsuit with the Winklevoss’, and present day, at least at the beginning. I would have liked more set up ahead of time. It wasn’t confusing enough to ruin anything, but the time flashes could have been smoother.

The acting is fabulous – not one thing to complain about. I rather enjoyed Justin Timberlake, but how could you not? The character of Mark Zuckerberg is portrayed as a jerk at times, clueless at others, and ultimately someone who simply doesn’t care about much other than himself and his business. Still, he’s not a robot and we understand him even if we don’t agree with his decisions.

If you’re looking for a film that’s exciting, fast paced, full of sex or drama, this probably isn’t the movie for you. It’s quiet, but it tells the story it sets out to tell. That business is brutal. There are always people waiting to claim a piece of your success. Friends should remember they were friends before they were business partners.

If nothing else, it will make you think about more than stalking your ex next time you sign onto Facebook. What? Don’t look at me like that. You know you do it too.

Photos by Merrick Morton – © 2010 Columbia Tristar Marketing Group