Film Review: The Social Network

By: Gabrielle Bondi

When I first heard about Hollywood making a Facebook movie, I thought it was going to be some lame teenage movie. A few weeks later, I found out that David Fincher was to direct this Facebook movie. That got me curious. Why would the director of Fight Club and Seven direct a movie about Facebook? More weeks fly by, and I was hearing about “this amazing script” called THE SOCIAL NETWORK. I was told it was about Facebook and that Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay. That got me really curious. Why would the guy who wrote The West Wing write a screenplay about Facebook? Hence, I sat back and started to read the script.

Two and half hours later, I was in awe. This was definitely not some lame teenage movie.

“The Social Network” is just… amazing. (If you have read the script, the movie is just like it.) The movie is about the creation of Facebook, a story of greed, power and betrayal. Facebook is more of a backdrop in this movie; the characters and interactions are the ones that take the main stage. There are three perspectives of the creation of Facebook given: Mark Zuckerberg,  Eduardo Saverin, and the Winklevoss twins and Divya Narenda. Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is a computer programming genius at Harvard University. Andrew Garfield plays Saverin, Zuckerberg’s best friend. After drunkenly crashing the Harvard network, Zuckerberg garners the attention of the popular and rich Winklevoss twins and their friend, Divya Narenda. They ask Zuckerberg to create a website for them that Harvard students can use to connect to each other online. Zuckerberg runs off and creates a new version of their idea with Saverin.  Facebook automatically becomes a success. As with anything that gets big, everything starts to get complicated from then on.

Eisenberg acts exceptionally well as the fast-talking, blunt and sarcastic Zuckerberg. Armie Hammer pulls a Lindsay Lohan/Parent Trap and plays both of the Winklevoss twins. And Justin Timberlake CAN act, proving this by playing the suave and paranoid Napster creator, Sean Parker. Rooney Mara (She recently won the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in the American version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” also to be directed by David Fincher.) plays Zuckerberg’s girlfriend in the beginning, and she is the catalyst for the events that lead Zuckerberg to create Facebook.

The musical score is very bass heavy. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Atticus Ross collaborated for the score. And it works amazingly well with the film.

David Fincher is a visionary. The tone and style of filming is brilliant. It adds more to the emotions and situations the characters are dealing with. In my opinion, no other director can do it better. (If you know of Fincher’s work, look at Zuckerberg’s screen when he says he created an alias on Facebook to have people help him with his Art History homework. You’ll get a kick out of it.)

An Oscar nod is expected for Fincher’s directing, as well as, Aaron Sorkin’s writing. I do not see any acting nods, if anything Jesse Eisenberg or Andrew Garfield should receive recognition. I’m not sure how the Academy will take to Reznor and Ross’ score. However, I am almost positively sure that “The Social Network” will receive a Best Picture nomination.

I can not explain how much I love this movie, as I cannot explain everyone’s obsession with Facebook. Even after the screening, the first thing I did was update my Facebook status to share with my friends how awesome this movie is. The part that really got to me was the irony. The irony that this website that connects millions of people all over the world to each other tore apart the two best friends that created it.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK will be released on October 1, 2010.