You don't get 500 million friends without making a few enemies.
Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Aaron Sorkin (screenplay) & Ben Mezrich (book)
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer and Josh Pence, Max Minghella, Joseph Mazzello, Patrick Mapel, Rooney Mara
Spurned after getting dumped by his girlfriend, a Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, creates a retaliatory website that leads to the creation of Facebook, the largest social networking site of all time.
Historical films come in all varieties. Some try to more-or-less faithfully depict long-gone historical figures with the significant events of their lives, like
Elizabeth. Some take historical figures and put them in a more fictionalized story, like
Shakespeare in Love. Some place fictional characters against a recognizably historic backdrop, like
Gone With the Wind and
Saving Private Ryan. Some blend both historical and fictional elements, like
Ragtime. Some speculate about what might have happened, like
JFK and similar conspiracy theorist films. Often they cover their asses by saying that they are "inspired" by actual events.
But when a biographical story is current -- especially a story that is still ongoing -- audiences expect a higher dedication to accuracy. And in that sense, "The Social Network" probably fails. Only one person involved in the founding of the company, Eduardo Saverin, was involved in the original book "The Accidental Billionaires," and in Aaron Sorkin's subsequent screenplay. But despite the inaccuracies, the film is nevertheless a brilliant character study and a collection of truly brilliant performances.
Jesse Eisenberg stars with his most significant role to date, finally breaking out of the hapless teenager roles dominated by Michael Cera. He portrays Zuckerberg as somewhat petulant, snide, aloof yet quietly passionate, all with an economy of words and the most subtle of facial changes. The minority of critics who have felt that the character was a little two-dimensional need to see this film again to watch for subtle depths that Eisenberg instills in his portrayal.
Andrew Garfield as Zuckerberg's best friend and company co-founder Eduardo Saverin also delivers a tremendous performance, albeit one not forced to be so restrained. And restraint was clearly out the window for Justin Timberlake's delightful performance of the flashy Sean Parker, the founder of Napster who wiggled his way into the company -- and Saverin out -- before himself being forced to resign after being arrested for cocaine possession with an under-21 year old girl.
Is it historically accurate? Some of it, at least, is probably not. Much emphasis, probably too much, is placed on Zuckerberg's reaction to getting dumped by his girlfriend. His initial reaction is no doubt accurate -- the blog entries Zuckerberg wrote about it were included in court deposition transcripts when Saverin and the Winklevoss twins were separately suing him. But Zuckerberg had already met another woman even before TheFacebook launched, and they were dating not long after the company moved to Palo Alto, perhaps already living together by the time the lawsuits occurred. (They remain together to this day.) To suggest that Zuckerberg ended up lonely, dateless and friendless, is an overstatement. Did he plant negative stories about Saverin? Did he set up Parker with the cocaine bust? Did he steal the idea and concepts for Facebook from the Winklevoss brothers? The film, to its credit, raises the speculations made by Zuckerberg's critics without trying to answer them.
Of course, the film doesn't go into much about Facebook's present issues itself -- breaking away from its college exclusivity, finally embracing an advertising-supported financial model, or the controversial privacy issues the company has faced. Nor should it. The story is about the people who founded the company, their relationships. And those relationships reached the end of their story arc with the lawsuits and financial settlements. As a character study and as an example of truly brilliant acting, the film is worthy of the acclaim and the awards being bestowed upon it.
My grade: A
