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“The Social Network” tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg, who some would call the Thomas Edison of his generation. He invented Facebook. Seemingly, the inventor of electricity is far more important than the inventor of Facebook, unless you ask any one of its five hundred million members. It’s become the most necessary thing on the internet and the story of its creation is much more complex than one would imagine.
Before going any further, I must take into mind that I am writing this after my third viewing of the movie and I fear that I’ve lost track of which of the information mentioned in this review will spoil the movie. So, just in case I’ll give you the formal warning. I realize that this may discourage you from reading this review before seeing it, but I will tell you now that it’s worth seeing, then coming back here and seeing what you think about what I have to say. So, without further a due, here you go.
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Now that I’ve gotten that over with I will proceed with my review.
“The Social Network” is David Fincher’s finest work in years. It’s no less as brilliant as its subject, Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard sophomore who’s smarter than anyone you’ve ever met and knows it. Zuckerberg is played by the fantastic Jessie Eisenberg, who we have yet to see a bad performance from since Noah Baumbach’s “The Squid and The Whale” in 2005.
Zuckerberg’s best friend, Eduardo Saverin is played by Andrew Garfield, who’s scheduled to play Peter Parker in the upcoming Spiderman re-boot. Mark comes to Eduardo with the idea for a new website, wanting it to be their new project. Once the website is up, they both become credited as co-founders on its masthead. Eisenberg and Garfield have impeccable chemistry together and both play their role perfectly. Pushing them forward is a terrifically written script by Aaron Sorkin that will garner much momentum come Oscar time.
The movie moves from the early stages of Facebook’s development to its millionth member, cut together with scenes from future courtroom sessions. One of which is with Eduardo as the plaintiff and Mark as the defendant. The audience goes through most the movie unsure as to why, exactly, Eduardo is suing Mark, but as the movie unfolds, we as the audience are introduced to the kind of a**hole Mark is capable of being. The other people suing mark are the literally big headed Winklevoss twins (both played by Armie Hammer) who row crew for Harvard and have an extremely wealthy father and their business associate (Max Minghella). They’re accusing Mark of stealing their idea for a website called “Harvard Connection” that they’d asked his help creating. The audience isn’t pushed toward taking anyone’s side. We’re just shown what happened and not left to play the judge. We do however come to realize why all these people come to despise Mark and why each lawsuit is warranted.
Fincher, Sorkin and Eisenberg all do a great job of examining Zuckerberg, but carefully still leave what kind of person he really is a mystery. This is one of the most interesting things that are done in this fast-paced masterpiece. There is question alluded back to whenever the word, “a**hole” is used. Fincher uses “a**hole” similar to the way Scorsese uses the crucifix. The fact that the word “A**hole” is a huge piece of symbolism in this movie shows just how much it’s committed to the foul-mouthed culture its depicting.
Mark is first called an “A**hole” in a beautifully played scene in the first seven minutes where Mark’s aggravated girlfriend Erika (Rooney Mara), is finally breaking up with him. She does this after putting up with his ramblings, his endless knowledge and desire to get into one of the many prestigious final clubs where all of the other a**holes at Havard hangout. After Erika does this, Mark’s sole purpose is to change her mind. Only he doesn’t realize that the key to not being an a**hole in a world where they come by the dozen is actually trying not to be one.
For the rest of the movie, we are left to decide whether Mark really is an a**hole. For almost the whole first half, we’re pretty sure he is, and then we meet Sean Parker, surprisingly played to perfection by Justin Timberlake. Compared to Sean, Mark is only a small slice in the pie graph of the biggest jerks on screen. Sean is a pompous, greedy and malicious entrepreneur and Mark is attracted to the success of the inventor of Napster. Sean takes Mark under his wing and promises to help him expand his website to go worldwide and make Mark a billionaire.
Another title for this movie could have been “Pretentious People,” a play on the 2009 Jud Apatow comedy, “Funny People.” Every character is pretentious in their own way, whether it’s because of their own brilliant minds, their accomplishments or the amount of money they have. By the time Mark is in court, he is pretentious for all three of these reasons and is not hesitant in letting everyone know. By this time, he’s come to the realization that he has enough money to lose each lawsuit, so he can get away with acting like an a**hole. This is why it is so extremely interesting to see Mark and Eduardo’s rise to fame, starting with two girls recognizing them in a Bill Gates lecture. It is in these scenes where we see Mark subtly acting like an a**hole and the selfish, insecure reasons that he does so.
Eduardo is the easiest to relate to. He is honest, rational and innocent. We root for him and cringe as we anticipate Mark’s betrayal that leads to the lawsuit. Mark with much influence from Sean muscles out Eduardo to make room for stock brokers (I guess this is the spoiler I was talking about) and once again the a-word is dished out to Mark, this time by his best friend instead of his girlfriend. This time it rings clear in Mark’s ear with no defense or resentment to the statement. He stares at his recently printed business cards that read “I’m CEO, B*tch.” Ever since Erika broke up with him, he had used “b*tch” as a substitute for “a**hole,” going home and calling her one on his blog. But now he realizes that it means nothing compared to a**hole. He realizes the business cards are pointless to him, because he just stabbed his best friend in the back. It’s too late when Rashinda Jones’ Lawyer character tells him he’s not a**hole. He knows. It’s interesting to think that if he had heard that from someone earlier, would he still be the CEO of facebook and the youngest Billionaire in the world? “A**hole” drove him to success and eventually two hefty lawsuits.
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Joel Edmiston is a Holy Trinity Grade 12 student. He’s enjoys watching and examining music and film. He’s currently in middle of writing two plays to be produced at his school in the next year. He’s quietly walking in between traffic on the life highway.
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