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Social Network Review

The Social Network has been infamously renamed “The Facebook Movie”. However, after watching the Social Network, it’s clear that the plot centers only on the creation of the landmark social networking website, not on Facebook itself. It’s about inspiration, betrayal, and the cost of success, the cost of fame, and the cost of a billion-dollar-idea.

Brilliantly, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin told this story through multiple perspectives (of each of the super-smart young men who claimed to be there at Facebook’s creation) and two legal battles. He actually told the most important aspects of the story through two depositions for two different lawsuits. These different perspectives on movie-making give a greater insight to the downside of becoming a multi-billionaire in your twenties and how the rewards may not always justify the struggle- especially not for Mark Zuckerberg.

As far as the acting goes, the performances are rather spectacular- especially those of the leads, Eisenberg, Garfield, and Timberlake.

Eisenberg portrays Mark Zuckerberg as an ironically iconic figure- a genius, clueless to human interaction, is the mastermind behind the greatest social network ever created to date. Eisenberg plain and simply steals each and every scene he’s in. Audiences are drawn in by his glaring at the characters around him as to imply boredom and lack of interest in their affairs, all the while delivering insights that could make a person near him feel that very way. Rather than bringing jealousy upon his character from the movie watchers, Eisenberg manages to create sympathy for the young multi-billionaire- he finds the humanity in someone so smart and yet so sad and angry. He doesn’t take for granted the amazing lines Zuckerberg has, and instead, was able to fully realize the potential of a hero, an anti-hero, and a misunderstood evil genius all wrapped up into one rather awkward Harvard student.

            Eduardo Saverin, the best friend to Facebook’s head creator, Mark Zuckerberg, is the rare type of genius-mastermind who actually prefers the college social experience to the imitation of it created online. He is soon understood as a slightly naïve student caught up in a gold rush moving too fast for him to keep ahead of or even up with. Andrew Garfield does not disappoint with the wide range of emotions he brought to the single most exciting and unexpected character in the story.

            And of course, there was Justin Timberlake perfectly cast as the savvy businessman who transformed Facebook into the monster-of-a social networking site it is today. Timberlake continually proved throughout his presence in the film that he is not the joke of an actor some people may want to label him as.

            The very audacity to tell a story of this period of time not yet finished playing out is what makes the script so exciting. It is both funny and dead-on.  The Social Network truly captured the very essence of the speed, sheer unbelievability, and shocking plot-twists that all took place in the creation of Facebook. The Social Network might have been a film that defined a generation had the question of Mark Zuckerberg’s multi-billionaire happiness had been explored at a greater depth.