With its themes of friendship, betrayal and ambition, The Social Networkis one of the best and most intriguing films of the year. The combination of wordsmith Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) and director David Fincher (Fight Club) has produced something exciting and narratively creative. Using two co-running lawsuits against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) the film tells the origin story through disputing voices and ‘truths’.
We open with 19-year-old Harvard student Zuckerberg out on a very uncomfortable date with his girlfriend (Rooney Mara). Showing off Sorkin’s signature rapid-paced, witty dialogue, this scene perfectly highlights the irony of the world’s largest social networking tool being created by someone who is socially inept. The narrative cuts between boardroom legal negotiations: on the one hand, original investor Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) is suing Zuckerberg for squeezing him out of the company after its move to Silicon Valley; on the other, the Winklevoss Twins (played by Armie Hammer) and Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) are suing Zuckerberg for stealing their idea for Facebook. Using this legal setting to weave in and out of events and perspectives, Fincher’s directing is as intelligent as Sorkin’s words.
The young, up-and-coming cast is impressive. Eisenberg brings both arrogance and vulnerability to the role of the computer genius who wants to get noticed. Garfield’s performance, equally good, is a jovial counterweight to Eisenberg’s deadpan. Proving his chops as an actor, Justin Timberlake is the film’s only true villain, playing Napster co-founder Sean Parker, who seduces Zuckerberg with his rockstar charisma.
Certainly part of the film’s appeal is simple curiosity, about one of our generation’s most defining entrepreneurs; but with superb storytelling this film also seems to be saying something more about our lives right now and the rise of the tech-savvy.
4.5/5
First published in The Brag 1/11/10
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