The Internet is forever

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2011)

Two people are sitting on a park bench, her head leans on his shoulder. She thinks he's cute and funny after he spent a week flicking her sweet nothings with his thumbs; she hides a screen under the counter at her workplace.
Neither of them have ever given a minute's thought to who invented the cell phone, but things are going to work out for them because of it. "The Social Network" is a movie about the inventors and the programmers, and the things that make them bother to program and invent.
Margaret Atwood put interesting words in the mouth of her protagonist in "Oryx and Crake." "The male frog in mating season makes as much noise as it can. ... Small male frogs -- it's been documented -- discover if they position themselves in empty drainpipes, the pipe acts as a voice amplifier and the small frog appears much larger than it really is. So that's what art is for the artist, an empty drainpipe. An amplifier. A stab at getting laid." Mark Zuckerberg, brilliantly played as a borderline Asperger's case by Jesse Eisenberg, is the very incarnation of this energy. His art is programming. He uses it to get back at the people - women - he feels have given him short shrift. He uses it to gain attention, and perhaps secretly hopes to be loved for it. His frustrations lead him to build the road that half a billion people travel along, on their way to each other. For him, it may be a dead end.
The movie gets everything right. The screenplay has been exalted in many words; I'll only say that if you enjoy hearing intelligent conversation, the first scene is all the encouragement you need. As a place where people could plausibly have these kinds of conversations in real life, Harvard is the perfect setting - and justice is finally done to an Ivy League school, after years of nerf visions like "The Skulls." The pacing of the movie is relentless - no slow second act, and a big exhale after two hours. Fincher's direction and cinematography are good because they're never not good, with the rowing race scene one of the most memorable and outstanding moments in a career that has included "Seven" and "Fight Club." Actors - fantastic. Score - wonderful.
You really should see this movie.