Geeky contemporary classic The Social Network, a 2011 nominee for Best Picture, highlights early struggles of the popular website Facebook while showing the personal battles of its super-intelligent founders. Aaron Sorkin’s smart dialogue and screenplay are central in this drama.
The Social Network won Oscars for Best Film Editing, Best Music (Original Score) and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay). The film received Golden Globe awards for Best Motion Picture, Drama; Best Director; Best Screenplay and Best Original Score.
What’s stunning is how Jesse Eisenberg lives in the uneasy, socially taboo state of loneliness. Eisenberg is more than a misfit as he plays the socially stilted yet very human visionary and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He shows us nothing less than the state of sabi, “the loneliness of the soul.”
Child-like in his blogging and programming, Eisenberg’s other-worldly focus on friendship and social status is like that of a wise old man. He’s the outsider who wants to be “in,” yet fiercely maintains his personal and intellectual independence as he looks inward. He revels and agonizes in it all at once. Can life be distilled onto a computer screen?
Eisenberg and co-star Andrew Garfield bring the techno-savvy pioneers and their high stakes maneuvering down to earth for the rest of us. As we travel with the pair from computer labs to campus parties to the courtroom, filmmaker David Fincher evokes the bittersweet taste of youth.
Garfield almost steals the show as Zuckerberg’s emotive (and only) buddy Eduardo Saverin. It’s Eduardo who funds and writes the business plan for “The Facebook.” A Best Supporting Actor nomination seems certain for Garfield’s angst-driven exploration of friendship, loyalty and brilliance.
What began in 2003 on a Fall night in the Harvard dorm room of computer programming major Zuckerberg has turned into a worldwide social and business phenomenon. His cold, online stunt to lash out at the girlfriend who dumps him (Rooney Mara) gains a record number of hits and crashes Harvard’s server.
Zuckerberg next meets the Winklevoss twins (both played by Armie Hammer), a pair of varsity rowing Golden Boys who hire him to build the social website The Harvard Connection. He is captivated by the idea, develops and runs with it in a much broader direction.
Could Zuckerberg foresee the mesmerizing effect that Facebook has on millions of viewers each day who, from the privacy of their own computers, seek to connect with others and enhance their personal and/or business status? It’s a way to belong that transcends social status, time and space while it mimics personal connection.
The obnoxious yet sympathetic hero leaves Harvard to become the world’s youngest billionaire, but not before he fights legal battles over intellectual property with friends and non-friends. Justin Timberlake does fine work as sleazy business adviser and Napster co-founder Sean Parker.
The Social Network contains many fictional details (including the breakup with girlfriend Erica). Zuckerberg and the tale’s other luminaries would not speak with Fincher.
Nevertheless the director succeeds in this film rich with history, biography and many layers of meaning beneath its action and story.
If you like The Social Network, you might enjoy: Greenberg; I'm Still Here; The Kids Are All Right.
The Social Network 2010 / PG-13 / 2 hours
Cast Overview: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield, Joseph Mazzello, Rooney Mara, Rashida Jones, Bryan Barter, Dustin Fitzsimons
Director: David Fincher
Genres: Drama, History
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