Movie Review: The Social Network
It seems only fitting that my combined passions for film and the Web should lead to a movie review about The Social Network – a dramatic tale centered around the remarkable story of the birth and early days of Facebook, and in particular it’s enigmatic founder Mark Zuckerburg. Not to mention the fact that I’ve built a business that in part benefits from the efforts of these kinds lads…
Before you watch The Social Network, you must understand that it is not a documentary – it’s a Hollywood movie. Hollywood knows full well that the promise of the ‘true’ story behind the creation of Facebook has enough gravitas to put bums in cinema seats. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is quoted as saying, “I don’t want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to storytelling…”, and Dustin Moskovitz (played by Joseph Mazzello) described it as a “dramatisation of history”.
The story as told by the movie is simple – a brilliant and slightly awkward Harvard student creates a website that reinvents social networking on the Web, but the remarkable success of his creation impacts the relationships dearest to him, and not always for the better.
The movie is remarkable as a blockbuster in the sense that it relies heavily on character development with little to no sex, violence, effects or profanity as a drawcard. It’s not terribly funny, although the cleverly constructed script does squeeze in a few laughs here and there. And that’s where the quality is – a compelling story, weaved artfully with a fantastic script and some pretty solid performances from the young cast to boot.
Jesse Eisenberg is impressive as Mark Zuckerburg without being brilliant – it’s a role that shows potential for greater things than the awkward teenager disposition we saw in Adventureland and Zombieland (no relation). Other notables include Rooney Mara and Andrew Garfield (who is rumoured to be in line to play Peter Parker in an upcoming Spider-man reboot. Yes, another one…).
I was intrigued upon hearing that Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor would be behind the soundtrack but disappointed when the credits rolled and I couldn’t remember hearing it at all. Perhaps this is a good thing? Maybe it blended in so well that I was oblivious to it’s awesomeness.
This is a difficult movie to rate because I’m well aware the story of Facebook is probably more intriguing to me than the average viewer, but regardless of who you are there is no denying it is a well-written, skillfully constructed film atypical to it’s generation. I’m looking forward to your opinions though!
Rating: 6.5/10
