It's 2003. Social networking has just begun to evolve. There's Friendster and MySpace, but not everyone cares enough to sign up for such sites. It's just a fad. But jump down to Harvard University, where a student would soon be creating a site that would change all that. He would create such a site that, if you didn't belong, you were considered on the outs. His site would create a desire - a desire to have 'friends.' And from that desire, Facebook would be created. Fast-forward seven years and 5 billion 'friends' later and at age 26, that student is now the youngest billionaire in the world.
"The Social Network," released Friday, tells the story of how Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) created Facebook and interweaves that story with two court cases involving those he pushed aside to get to the top: His ex-best friend and ex-CFO of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and the Winklevoss twins, a set of crew-champion, comes-from-family-money, intimidating-Harvard students (Armie Hammer and Armie Hammer's face on Josh Pence's body - more on that later) who claim they had the idea first and Zuckerberg stole it. Throw in Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), co-founder of Napster, and his stake in the Facebook story and you have quite a gripping movie.
Written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, "The Social Network" will have your brain working a mile a minute within the first 15 minutes.
In the opening scene, we have Zuckerberg having a drink with his then girlfriend (Rooney Mara) at the infamous Thirsty Scholar Pub in Somersville, Mass. His mind is set on discussing the elite finals clubs at Harvard, while her's hasn't even gotten past the 'How was your day?' part of the conversation. Zuckerberg's mind just keeps going and going, and it's fascinating to try and follow how his brain movies in that way. This quick-wit gab of Zuckerberg could easily deter one from wanting to watch his manic personality throughout the rest of the movie, but Sorkin knew what he was doing. It's worth it to sit though it.
Fincher knows how to tell a story, too. As the director of "Fight Club" and "Zodiac" he presents a good storyline and lets the viewer make up their own mind about what really happened. And that's the genius of "The Social Network." It makes you think. It's like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Book; Fincher and Sorkin simply provide you with the facts to draw your own conclusions about how things went down.
"The Social Network's" story may appear one-sided, ganging up on Zuckerberg, making him look like a total, well, fill in your favorite noun or adjective here. But depending on the viewer, Zuckerberg might come off as a sympathetic character. As the film's slogan states, 'You don't get to 500 friends without making a few enemies' - so business is business, right? No matter who may have gotten in the way or fallen short of rising to the top along with Zuckerberg. You gotta work fast in the Internet age and that is all Zuckerberg set out to do.
And the actors put up a very compelling case study on who to believe.
Eisenberg, best known for small-screen hits "Zombieland" and "Adventureland," completely gets into the mindset of Zuckerberg - his mannerisms, quick wit, the dark, sinister look in his eyes when he's knows you may be right about him; and the way he's always going, ready to pounce on any idea - Zuckerberg is ruthless in a way and that's nothing we've seen Eisenberg capable of portraying before. From experience, Eisenberg has always managed to play the cute-but-no-one-will-notice-me, insecure nice-guy. With "The Social Network" he transforms that image and brings his A-game.
For much of the movie Saverin goes un-noticed as a character and is simple there as a financial backer for Zuckerberg, and Garfield is just a pretty face for us to look at on the screen. It's not until the final confrontation between Saverin and Zuckerberg that we finally see Garfield's true acting chops. It's a great in-the-moment pivotal performance.
Garfield is set to be the next Spider-Man in the newest re-launch of the franchise, so let's hope he can bring that type of energy to that character.
Justin Timberlake continues to surprise me. The cute, souther N-Sync-er, turned solo-star, turned actor, clothing designer and SNL star can really hold his own. The small roles he's taken on before this film - in "Alpha Dog" and "Black Snake Moan" - have been fairly good. But no one really paid attention to those movies (even though they should - they're both great). And you can't judge an actor simply on his voice work in "Shrek" movies either. Timberlake needed a bigger story to really showcase his skills.
He got it as Sean Parker - the cool party guy who takes Zuckerberg under his wing - leading him into the bigger life of LA and steering him toward the choices that Parker didn't make when working on Napster. Timberlake is perfect for the part - with an innocent face, but capable of being manipulative. From this part on, we no longer see Justin Timberlake the singer. We see Justin Timberlake the actor.
As for Armie Hammer, who plays the Winklevoss twins, who claim to have given the idea of Facebook to Zuckerberg, Hammer is sure to be the next big thing in Hollywood. Hammer, who's face and voice were digitally superimposed on to Pence's body, is commanding and intimidating on screen. As a character you think the twins' stature and bullying would make Zuckerberg back into a corner and cry, but Zuckerberg is too quick to be intimated by them. He knows what he's doing and it all goes over the Winklevoss' heads before they can do anything about it.
There's a lot to take in with "The Social Network" and your perception may change after watching the movie a few times. My head is still spinning after watching it. Not in an "Inception" kind of way, but in a "If I were in his shoes, what would I do?" kind of way.
Those of you still not keen to the idea of a Facebook movie, just think - it's been seven years since the creation of Facebook - that's not a long time. And it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Even if you don't use Facebook, "The Social Network" is a must-see movie that deserves your viewing, if not for the superb acting and storytelling, but simply for the fact that it showcases how, in the 21st-century, one student who was hungry enough took a simple idea and turned it into billions.
Who else can post that achievement on their wall?
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