The Social Network, in short, is a scarily good flick, compelling story line, supported by great young actors, and well-directed by David Fincher. Whoever has the idea to make a film about Facebook founders and to reveal all the drama behind in it, really has some guts to do it. Not just because the whole facebook thing is a recent thing, but also will it be painstakingly boring or overlong? I know that Fincher is able to make as good as 'Se7en', or the other way around, boring as 'Zodiac' or 'Benjamin Button'. But turns out he did a nice job for this one, and as far as I can recall, this is his first 'youth' movie, where all the main cast are mostly young people, and the story is something pretty sensitive to be put into the big screen. Nevertheless, in the end I can add 'The Social Network' into my favorite Fincher's movies.
The plot is simple enough, Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius, formulated an idea (not a fresh one, of course) from his dorm room in 2003 and ended up six years later as a global social network which revolutionizes the way we communicate. With Facebook, he has 500 million friends, and becomes the youngest billionaire....but, success apparently comes with a ruined friendship and both personal and legal complications.
The story is being told in in flash back, and since I missed the first 5 minutes, I'm guessing the opening was started in the office room, where all the Mark (Jesse Eisenberg) is being sued by 2 sides, one is his best friend and co-founder, Eduardo (Andrew Garfield), and the other side are the Winklevoss twins (played brilliantly by one guy, Armie Hammer). Each accompanied by their own lawyers, and from there, the story begins on how the Facebook came up as an idea, and ends up being both hits and huge mess among these guys. The opening scene when Mark hacks all the other Harvard houses just to get the chics pics is damn mesmerizing, it's one of the scene that you don't need to understand the narration but it looks damn cool. Computer hacking is always cool when it is translated into the big screen.
One of many reasons why I like Social Network is that there's no 'white guy', everybody is both protagonist and antagonist, everybody is just normal human being, with all the greed and competitive hormone runs in the blood (especially guys). Up to certain time, everyone is guilty, and everyone is right, and in some cases, you really can't pick sides. It's quite scary to see how these kids are put to be in position to where they can pay their own bills and starting to gain huge amount of profit. Again, the long road to success (in their story) requires sacrifices on other parts, such as your friendship.
It's no easy to make this real life story into a movie, but Fincher is genius on putting all those ingredients altogether, and kudos to Aaron Sorkin to create such good script from the book by Ben Mezrich (The Accidental Billionaires), it's not too overlong with boring lines, in fact I enjoy the quick editing of the storyline, especially with its back and forth scenes. Music score by Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails also adds the 'teenage' ambiance, with its techno and quick beat catchy tunes.
From the cast department, Jesse Eisenberg did a nice work on portraying the cold, calculated and determined genius. Mark, I guess this is his best performance so far, after he did similar roles in Adventureland and Zombieland. At least he's very serious in this role, and he's able to land some difficult lines along the way. The rest are mostly newcomers, but the scene stealer is Armie Hammer who plays both twins. He put an amazing performance by playing this two similar face but distinctive character. Don't ask me how Fincher did the CGI thing, but it looks so seamless (Benjamin Button, ring a bell?). Also, the Justin Timberlake addition also provides some interesting scenes (well, he can act, for sure). The film is also a rare showcase of pure acting prowess, and features a very interesting and eclectic cast of young actors stepping out of their comfort zones and delivering some truly phenomenal work. The casting of the film is quite a departure for Fincher, who has enough clout to gather the biggest names working in the business. Instead, he opted to go for a cast of relative unknowns or up-and-comers, and really make stars out of them.
Perhaps it's too literal, but like many people said, this is the movie that defines 'our generation era', or bravely enough, 'the product of our time'. It was, while haunting, truly refreshing and ultimately a triumph in many aspects, whether it be considering the acting, script, or directing. 'The Social Network' is a timeless story of friendship, loyalty, greed and betrayal. But again, it's Hollywood, I'm sure their dramatization of certain scenes is too much, but again, it managed to keep people in their seats.
My Rating : 9/10
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