Writers: Aaron Sorkin, Ben Mezrich (author)
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake
Release Date: October 1, 2010
Length: 2 hours 1 minute
It’s hard to sit down to write a review and try to focus on what you want to say when you are utterly lost for words. I was in this position for a week after seeing David Fincher’s The Social Network. There is too much to say, however nothing can be left out of speaking of the film that perfectly defines a generation. In 2003, nineteen-year-old Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) was attending Harvard University with his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). Zuckerberg is, or at least is portrayed as unbearably almost too smart to speak and behave like a regular teenager, let alone a regular person. His brain doesn’t make him seem like an innocent nerd though. He seems to be an uncontrollable jerk who uses his incredible intelligence for example, when he is angered by a girl breaking up with him. The film switches from the past while he is attending Harvard to the present where he is in the middle of two lawsuits. At Harvard, Zuckerberg is constantly hacking into computers with his fellow programmer friends, which leads him to leak out a comparative online survey to guys where they choose which girl of two on campus is hotter. This becomes a massive hit and leads to the Winklevoss brothers. They approach Mark about programming their social networking website for Harvard students, which provides Mark the idea for Facebook. While telling these brothers he is creating their site, he is consulting with Eduardo to create Facebook, which they proceed to do. As Facebook becomes larger, expanding from university to university, it eventually reaches ladies man Napster-founder, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) who is more than intrigued by this idea. When the three meet, problems arise. Mark is finding himself idolizing Parker while Eduardo thinks he’s a pretentious idiot. It get’s even worse when Mark stays in Los Angeles with Sean for the summer while ill-informed Eduardo is doing an internship in New York. My short summary of this film doesn’t even begin to cover the facebook account of how it came to be and the untold story of how Mark Zuckerberg became the youngest billionaire in the world. Aaron Sorkin has never disappointed audiences before. His scripts continue to be unique, authentic and clever. He takes a real interesting story and turns it into a fast-paced, intense piece of film. It might be odd to think that I was on the edge of my seat watching The Social Network, but every scene had my full devoted attention from beginning to end. Another great thing about the script was that the whole internet technology aspect of the film seemed to not confuse older audience members but quickly intrigued them because the character of Zuckerberg makes it seem so simple. When it became known that Aaron Sorkin wrote a new movie, I was beyond excited. When I found out that movie would be directed by David Fincher, it couldn’t get any better. Fincher always adds an emotional and technical, dark forceful feeling to all his movies. He also never disappoints, which make him and Sorkin a formidable duo. Fincher took Sorkin’s script and made the actors speak the lines twice as fast as they usually would. Although this was an effect done to minimize screen time (under a contract for a two hour film), it was one of the film’s most interesting aspects. For example, in the opening scene between Mark and his girlfriend, Erica, they are speaking so quickly, I feel that that’s how ingenious Harvard students speak. Not only was it a unique choice but it was part of the reason I was so on the edge of my seat. I felt I had to pay attention to everything they were saying or I would miss something. The only last thing you can do to improve a movie that already has an outstanding script and an incredible director, is hiring a terrific cast. I don’t just mean that The Social Network had fantastic actors in their lead roles, but the film seemed to nail every character with a talented actor. No amount of screen time was given to anyone short of magnificent. Jesse Eisenberg has always been great at playing the smart, sweet, dorky teenager and he continues that persona in The Social Network. This time however, he flawlessly plays a completely insensitive teenager, something most people haven’t seen him play before. Not to undermine Eisenberg’s past performances, but this time, he feels so much more real to watch on screen. For me though, the real star of this movie was Andrew Garfield, perhaps because he is a fresh face. His performance as Eduardo is also extremely genuine and heartbreaking for the audience to watch. His performance doesn’t create any tearjerkers, though. Garfield’s performace makes us gradually worry for Eduardo, as his friendship with Mark weakens. In one specific scene, toward the end, Garfield stole the movie. Surprisingly enough, Justin Timberlake holds his ground beside Eisenberg and Garfield. I was by no means angry or upset when I heard he was cast in The Social Network, just a little confused. My puzzlement was cleared within the first few seconds of his performance, knowing that with a fantastic script from Aaron Sorkin, Timberlake was more than ready to rise to the occasion, and wow, did he ever. Watching his tremendous performance in The Social Network made me forget about his starting days in ‘N Sync which is nothing to be ashamed of but I prefer to think of him as the wonderful actor he is today. Without going into detail, other extremely notable performances came from Rashida Jones, as one of Mark’s lawyers, as well as Josh Pence and Armie Hammor as the Winklevoss brothers, who were extremely hilarious. Rooney Mara and Brenda Song as Mark and Eduardo’s respective girlfriends also gave great performances. This is a movie that gives you so much information, as it should. It doesn’t throw it at you, however. It’s just condensely woven into an excellent story. Although it’s clearly known that Sorkin took some creative license, it doesn’t matter when you know that the facts are real and this is a movie that will pull you in further and further as it continues. As I mentioned earlier, Sorkin and Fincher were yes a great pair, but everything in this movie, including the real unique story, the unbelievable cast, the witty script and the powerful direction all fit perfectly together to make this film. If you don’t see this, you will be missing out on the film that accurately describes the decade and is no doubt, the best film of the year.
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