So let’s get this out of the way early. I loved it. Just in the first five minutes, you could already tell that it was written by Aaron Sorkin. As much as I LOVE his dialogue, I’m glad the movie wasn’t filled with rapid-fire back-and-forth. That’s what my Gilmore Girls dvds are for. I never read “The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich (on which the movie is based), so I can’t speak to how faithful the adaptation was, but I thought it was a smartly written script. I’d have to say that my favorite line in the entire movie was said by one of the Winklevoss twins: “I’m 6’5”, weigh 220 pounds, and there’s two of me.” Ah Harvard; a land where douche bags can be witty and clever whilst being brutish all at the same time. Being a former resident of Orange County, I was more accustomed to the Bro Breed of dee-bags. This movie, however, put the spotlight on the East Coast, Ivy League educated variety.
I guess that leads us to the one of the main negative things I’ve heard about the movie: the fact that there weren’t many likeable characters. Being that this was a movie about Harvard students getting stinkin’ rich and then fighting over ownership, what did people really expect? If anything, I thought the characters were realistically human, flaws and all. Jesse Eisenberg did an excellent job of portraying the young Facebook CEO as a dense nerd that, at the end of the day, just wanted to be cool (as put perfectly in the last line of the movie). Actually, I thought all of the performances were great. Armie Hammer did an excellent job playing twins (although another actor stood in for his brother while his face was digitally added in – ah, the magic of movies). Even Disney-bred Brenda Song shined in her small part as Eduardo’s psycho girlfriend. The only weak performance, in my opinion, came from Justin Timberlake. He had the sliminess of Sean Parker down, but his machismo was severely lacking. I know girls (and guys) go crazy for the JT, but he seemed (as my friend Clark noted) unconvincing as a ladies’ man. To use the phrase correctly: his portrayal of the Napster founder was a little gay. Still, it was a very talented young cast they assembled.
Despite the darker tone of the movie (as highlighted by a great score from Trent Reznor), I thought that the exuberant energy of youth and their pursuit of new ideas was just as much of a message as the other themes. Facebook is something that sprung from my generation and affected pop culture on such a large scale. This movie revolved around undergrads making it big. Who wouldn’t make mistakes like them? I equated it to the time-old tale of Lotto winners and their habit of effing up the goodness that randomly landed on their laps. Zuckerberg didn’t go to school to be a billionaire, so I don’t disparage him for sucking at it. Was greed a constant them throughout the movie as well? Sure. But being the optimistic bastard that I am, I’m still inspired by the fact that Mark was able to maintain ownership of his big idea, even if he did lose his best friend in the process.
The Social Network was an entertaining film with a sharply written script, socially relevant subject matter, and great performances overall. I recommend it to anybody who has a Facebook profile… even you, passive stalkers.
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