The Social Network - David Fincher

The Social Network (2010) - Rotten Tomatoes

The film kicks off with a rapid-fire, dialogue-heavy scene between Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his soon-to-be-girlfriend (Rooney Mara) that only Sorkin could write.  It’s an opening scene that most films would kill to have as it lays its protagonist bare while still keeping him intriguing and hints at the motives that would drive him to create one of the most popular, influential, and lucrative inventions of all-time.  It’s been said that “This is the movie Facebook (i.e. Zuckerberg) doesn’t want you to see,” but the Zuckerberg presented in The Social Network is almost a tragic figure.  Every mean-spirited barb he throws out is something we wish we had the wit to say and yet the script and Eisenberg’s phenomenal performance makes us pity the man who feels like he has to say such hurtful things in the first place.  Where Facebook and Co. may take umbrage isn’t in Mark’s Sorkin-scripted-words, but Zuckerberg’s supposed actions.

And it’s in trying to show those actions that the film presents its killer story structure.  The Social Network is told through two depositions for two different lawsuits.  One lawsuit is from the Aryan poster-child twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) and their partner Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) alleging that Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook and forestalled the creation of a rival site.  The other is from Zuckerberg’s former friend and business partner, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield).  Through this layered storytelling, the notions of heroes and villains are laid aside and we see that on the road to the creation of this monumental website, there’s enough credit/blame to go around.

Wandering into these shades of gray, Fincher has created his most restrained and subtle film to date.  The Social Network could have easily fallen into a trap of over-stylized and distractingly-flashy effects, but Fincher must have realized he wasn’t making “The MySpace Movie” and instead opted for approach that’s as clean and crisp as Facebook’s layout.  Fincher finds his energy in the script, the acting, and with Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall’s superb editing.  Watching Mark drunkenly burn through code as he hacks the websites of every dorm in Harvard is as exciting as most big-budget action scenes.

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