The Social Network

The Social Network Review

Jessie Eisenberg (Zombieland; The Education of Charlie Banks) stars as Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in this David Fincher (Seven; Fightclub; Benjamin Button) directed film about the creation of Facebook and the fall of the friendship between Zuckerberg and co-founder Eduardo Saverin; played by Andrew Garfield (the New Spiderman). The movie itself is much less about the founding of the massively popular social networking site and more about the friendship between Zuckerberg and Saverin. With the score done by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). This film is a beautifully crafted masterpiece of style and substance, with an excellent score by Reznor. Reznor's cover of "In the hall of the mountain king" very well could be his best piece of work, next to such great hits as "Closer", and "March of the Pigs." He takes an older; classically done song and adds his own flavor to it.

The story itself is based on The Accident Billionares by Ben Mezrich. As stated previously it follows the founding of Facebook by Zuckerberg and Saverin, and chronicles their tumultuous friendship, while detailing the lawsuits against Zuckerberg by Saverin himself and Cameron, and Tyler Wilkenvoss. One of the real highlights is Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster. It's quite funny that the man playing a person who fought the music industry over copyright claims is a musician himself. The irony in that gets lost almost when Timberlake comes on screen. Many media figures who try to cross-over into other fields of entertainment are met with various degrees of success, but after his performance in this film its pretty clear that Timberlake has found a second calling, or perhaps his true calling in entertainment. He dosen't come off as "Justin Timberlake playing Sean Parker" he comes off as Sean Parker himself, probably an exaggeration given the artistic license taken with many films based on real figures.

His performance is one of the highlights of the film. And as Parker is a great contrast to the characters of Zuckerberg and Saverin. At first I almost thought the film makers made up the Sean Parker connection myself until I looked him up. As I had never previously herd of Parker's influence on Facebook, it seemed something out of the imagination of Aaron Sorkin. But I guess life is stranger than fiction. Parker provides a different view from Zuckerberg and Saverin. As if to be a character that is placed to show us that "This is what could happen to these two if they made the wrong decisions." As Parker is portrayed as someone whose paranoid, erratic, and egotistical. I've never met the real man so I wouldn't know for myself. Add all that with the technique of casting Armie Hammer as both Tyler and Cameron Wilkenvoss; Armie provided the faces and lines for the twins with Josh Pence acting as a body double in scenes; is just brilliant. I had thought that Fincher had found a set of twins who were six-two; two-twenty pounds.

Tie all those actors with the direction of Fincher and you have a new American Masterpiece. Currently it is nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture(Drama), Essienberg is nominated for Best Actor(Drama) Garfield for Best Supporting(Drama), Fincher for best Director(Drama) and Reznor for best original score. Sometimes with accolades such as this you look at it and go "eh, its just an 'arstsy fartsy movie' but The Social Network is a true work of cinema magic. It easily surpassed my expectations and right now I have a hard time choosing it over Inception as my favorite movie of 2010. The story of Mark Zuckerberg, the founding of Facebook, and the twisting turns it takes two friends makes for a great film. I'd see it 500 times.

Rating: 5/5

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