The Social Network

Starring Mark Zuckerman, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake; directed by David Fincher

Rarely has a film so driven by dialogue been so riveting. Clocking in at two hours with nary an explosion, chase scene or battle royale, The Social Network manages to keep you on the edge of your seat until the tense finale with sharp writing and masterful performances.  It helps when you have one of Hollywood’s best director’s and a brilliant script that makes the founding of Facebook feel like something out of the Cold War in terms of potboiling intensity.

Starring the soon-to-be-Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg as the arrogant Harvard know-it-all who went on to champion the world’s biggest social networking site, the sort-of true story has a great topical protagonist.

Mark Zuckerberg—at least the version Aaron Sorkin of the West Wing fame committed to paper—may be an absolute genius, but he’s so painfully aware of his superior intellect that he alienates himself to everybody. Girls hate him, as the opening scene makes wonderfully clear—and he has only one friend, Eduardo Saverin, who generally feels used and manipulated. This dude is a capital A-hole and he knows it. Bring on the mammoth character arc!

After getting dumped because he’s a conceited jerk, Mark digs himself further into the grave by vengefully blogging about the girl and creating an offensive website that gets users to vote on which Harvard girls are hotter. While this “Face Mash” creates a controversial stir, its brilliance also draws the attention of some of Harvard’s top guns, namely Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, two buff rowing jocks masterfully played by one actor (Arnie Hammer).

But when he takes their idea with the assistance of Eduardo to create a private university social networking site and they run with it, things spiral out of control. Mark and Eduardo get groupy girls, become instantly popular, and eventually draw the attention of Napster founder Sean Parker (Timberlake), ad execs and big bad lawyers. The film’s story is intercut with proceedings from two major lawsuits, where both the Winklevoss twins and Mark’s only best friend threaten to sue him.

How much of this story is true remains a mystery as its principally drawn from court documents, Eduardo’s testimony and Ben Mezrich’s novel The Accidental Billionaires, and apparently offended Mark Zuckerman to remove “The West Wing” as one of his Facebook ‘likes’. Regardless, the economic conspiracy is so absolutely juicy, you won’t care if it’s fudged a bit. Sorkin, Fincher and the cast have created a story based on the reality that is probably better than the real thing, so who are we to complain?

Rating: Five stars out of five