A great Jesse Eisenberg performance!!

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2014)

'The Social Network' (2010) is a very good film but I'm surprised it hasn't been crippled by a deluge of libel suits. Jesse Eisenberg is tremendous as the fast-talking, hyper-programming Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. But is the real Mark so blinkered into effecting his own genius as the film portrays – even hinting that Mark is responsible for certain acts of base treachery? Is Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) really the ruthless, manipulating hedonist as displayed in the film? Is Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garfield) really the naive no-hoper displayed here? I've been working with computers for over 30 years (and somewhat over-awed by the 'Young Turks' of the Internet) but I really didn't learn that much about the workings of Facebook. What I did get was a master-class in the nastiness of humans determined to get to the top regardless or, as the Bible puts it, gain the whole world but lose their souls. It's a film that really leaves a bad taste in the mouth. One that I'll visit again, because it's very well made, but not very often. Worth an 8.