The Social Network (2010) Movie Review
The Social Network is a dramatisation of the events leading up to the birth of Facebook, the world’s most popular social networking website, and the creation of the its youngest billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg. It took six years to make 500 million friends, but how many enemies will be made along the way?
The movie is set during two separate pre-trial hearings in which Zuckerberg is being accused of stealing the idea for Facebook from the Winklevoss twins (both are played by Arnie Hammer thanks to the wonders of CGI), and of duping one of the original partners, Eduardo Savarin, out of his shares in the company; the story is told in a series of flashbacks, beginning in 2003 when Zuckerberg was a Harvard undergraduate, computer-science student, through to when Facebook reached an important milestones on the road to its success.
Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Zuckerberg is excellent, giving an often abrasive character just the right amount of awkwardness to allow the audience to forgive him his transgressions; there’s a fine line between feeling outraged and feeling sympathetic and Eisenberg’s performance pushes you towards the latter. Whatever The Social Network says about Zuckerberg’s social skills off-line, it certainly highlights his technological genius and entrepreneurial success in the online world; you just can’t help admiring the man’s intelligence after watching this movie.
The Social Network’s supporting cast is impressive too with an interesting performance by Justin Timberlake as the founder of Napster, Sean Parks; a modern Machiavelli, determined to cash in on the next big internet ‘thing’. Andrew Garfield as Zuckerbergs long suffering college roommate is also worth mentioning here for the realistic portrayal of one betrayed.
Intelligent and engaging, The Social Network is a fascinating look at what happened behind the scenes during the creation of a communications revolution. A revealing and inspiring two hours.
