The Social Network-- Film Review

David Fincher’s The Social Network brilliantly tells the scandalous story of the founding of Facebook. I walked into the movie not knowing what to expect, so to say it dramatically exceeded my expectations is fairly useless. Let me try to put it in perspective: If I had anticipated this movie would do an impeccable job at combining all of the aspects of filmmaking, I still would have underestimated the film entirely.

Fincher, whose directing résumé also consists of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Fight Club, takes the audience through the amazing story of the launching of the website that changed the world. We experience this journey by following Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, giftedly portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg, as he develops the idea for Facebook and subsequently fights two lawsuits brought by plaintiffs claiming they deserve some compensation for the ideas and money they contributed to the site. The Social Network, based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, allows viewers an inside look at the beginning of an era. Through an award winning performance by Eisenberg, the audience gets a real sense of the type of person Zuckerberg is.

Every movie starts with a screenplay, and while a bad screenplay can be saved by good actors and better direction, a well-written screenplay in addition to the latter two allows a movie to excel into a category of excellence few movies can achieve. Case in point? The Social Network.

Aaron Sorkin, also the screenwriter of A Few Good Men and Charlie Wilson’s War, is responsible for the amazing screenplay that became The Social Network. Sorkin craftily takes Mezrich’s novel and transforms it into a witty, fast-paced dialogue. The film is funny and heart wrenching at the same time. Sorkin writes in a way that allows you to empathize with the main characters despite their conflicting goals in the movie. The filmmakers do an excellent job at staying neutral in this polarized story, allowing the audience to make up their minds about the founding of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and the both trial processes. Much of the dialogue in The Social Network is unexpectedly humorous and chances are you won’t even comprehend all of the jokes and sarcasm during your first viewing.

You may not think The Social Network belongs on your must-watch list but I’m strongly suggesting you reconsider. The real story in itself is fascinating enough. However, when you add that it’s a true story about Facebook, a website that has defined an entire generation, you can imagine the potential. With the amazing screenplay Sorkin created and the superior acting done by the main characters, the movie’s potential more than livedis lived up to and then some. While a movie about the creation of Facebook may, at first glance, seem to be associated with pop culture (and yes, that is Justin Timberlake in the previews playing Sean Parker), the story, screenplay, and acting in this movie make it so much more and definitely worth your time.