James Reviews David Fincher’s The Social Network [New York Film Festival 2010 Review]

A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what is cool? A billion dollars.

Many people have been skeptical of The Social Network, when it was announced a few years ago. Some people shut up when they heard David Fincher would be directing. More people were in line when Aaron Sorkin was announced to write the script, based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaire’s. I tend to be fully behind Fincher no matter what he does. Do they always get my vote? (Look back at episode #33 of our podcast to know the answer to that one). Am I fully behind his newest film? I could say something corny like, “I LIKE this film.” but I won’t do that. Instead I’ll say I wasn’t disappointed at all and instead see a film that has so much more going for it than its inner maguffin.

It tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg, quasi-loser, just recently dumped by his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara and future Lisbeth Salandar in Fincher’s upcoming Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and what do most guys in their late teens do when they are broken up with? They run right back to their dorm to spew some hate filled blogs on Livejournal. Somehow, while drinking and searching for pictures, he comes up with the idea for Facemash, a site to compare girls online. But unlike a site like HotOrNot, this site would be with girls you know, from Harvard University and this is where Mark gets noticed, not only by school officials but by the twin dynamo known as the Winklevoss’, Cameron and Tyler. They’re in need of someone to help with their site, The Harvard Connection, a place where students could mingle with one another but not be like Friendster or Myspace, because this would be exclusive to Harvard students alone. And this is where Mark has an epiphany.

From then on in, we’re being told the story between two separate dispositions going on against Mark, one by the Winklevoss’ and Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) and the other by his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). What makes this most interesting is that Sorkin uses testimony from these accounts, other first person dialogue from people he interviewed and Mezrich’s book and throws it in a cinematic pot and makes a story that is compelling, one that is a story we’ve heard from the beginning of time. Shakespeare has told this story before, two friends who vow to never leave one behind but temptation comes along and dashes those dreams, with betrayal thrown in to make for some great dramatic elements. But this happened in real life, but what Sorkin asks the audience is not who to side with but instead to see all the sides of the story and whose side do you believe just a bit more. And all of this while Trent Reznor’s haunting, beautiful and at points awakening score to the film is accompanying it.

To get into the details, the nitty gritty, wouldn’t do anybody a favor. You might already know exactly what happens in this film, watching it all come at you on CSPAN, MSNBC, FOX News and wherever else it was plastered for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even those who read the Mezrich book might call themselves scholars on the subject, and they’d be half right. What Sorkin does is punch it up, with the facts of the story but sprinkling in the ‘what could have been said’ behind closed doors. Some people are commenting on that, asking how could this be a biographical tale instead of a fictional one. One must look at Peter Morgan’s script for The Queen. A film celebrated for its truth and wonderful script, Morgan was in no way hanging out with Queen Elizabeth II while she would be on the phone, or having intimate conversations in a bedroom. It dealt with a difficult time of the monarchy and did so with class and showed differing views and asked the audience to listen to all of them and come to a conclusion. The Social Network does this as well, and gives us many more voices to listen to.

Much credit must be given to Jesse Eisenberg, the anchor of sorts for this film as Mark Zuckerburg, the man with 500 million friends but plenty of enemies as well. Instead of what he’s known for, the usual nervous geeky guy, he changes it up a bit, giving a performance that at times is very laid back and where we like him and at other times we hate this guy, for what he’s doing to those around him, especially his best friend who has stuck with him from day one. Andrew Garfield (or Peter Parker/Spider-Man as everyone will be calling him soon) gives a great turn as the friend betrayed, Eduardo, and who still sticks by him in a way, even when he’s suing him for 600 million dollars. But the two performances I was most surprised by were Justin Timberlake and Armie Hammer. Timberlake plays former Napster bad boy Sean Parker, who is a fan of Mark’s and plays, to Eduardo at least, a devil on his shoulder, whispering into Mark’s ear. Some can see it like that, but Sean saw the potential in the site to make billions of dollars and the funny thing is, he was right. Timberlake shows this man as a charismatic, wining and dining, lady killer and he does it with such glee, peppered with great one liners throughout. Definitely a strong turn by Timberlake here.

But Armie Hammer, who is the cool, intelligent Winklevoss twins deserves the most attention. My mind was blown when the credits rolled and his name came up once for both men, showcasing not only Fincher’s CGI getting extremely better from his last venture, but the performance of this actor. To go back and forth with one self tends to sometimes come across as a bit goofy. But in this case, you the viewer are fooled and I can’t give enough credit to all who were involved with this ‘trickery’ of sorts.

I find it quite normal that while I write this review for The Social Network, I am indeed on 2 different social network sites right now. Twitter and of course the granddaddy of them all and the center of this film itself, Facebook. But to call it ‘The Facebook Movie’ would be doing a disservice to Aaron Sorkin’s rapid fire script and David Fincher’s impeccable directing. It would also be a slap to the faces of all the actors involved, especially the main trio (Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake). No, instead this film is about relationships, jealousy, depression, betrayal and salvation. This isn’t a religious movie at all, but you won’t find many dramas like this that will keep you glued to your seat, wondering what unfolded in the year 2003 when a college student took an idea and became a billionaire. And most won’t forget that final shot, knowing at one time or another we’ve done the same exact thing.