A depressing and realistic view of the world we live in.

Rating: 8/10 (20 October 2010)

First off, I'm a huge Fincher fan, Se7en and Fight Club being two of the best movies I've ever seen. He's my favorite director, right above Kubrick, Scorcese and Tarrantino. I've seen all of his movies except "benjamin button" which bored me 30 mns from the start (panic room and alien 3 weren't great either). But I'll give it another try.
This one is one of his greatest. I didn't find it enjoyable at all though, and I came out of the theater with a bitter taste in my mouth and feeling totally depressed. That's what's awesome about Fincher. His movies never let you indifferent, you think about them for hours after view.
The photography is, as usual, superb. I think DF isn't interested in shooting a movie with bright light and clearness. Once again, all the imagery is sunk in darkness and shadows, you instantly know it's Fincher's trademark. Makes me think of the Italian Renaissance technique "Chiaroscuro", deep shadow/light contrasts.
But beyond the aesthetics, the message is what counts. And as usual, it's dark, cynical and unfortunately very real. It's about people who are very good at what they are doing but very bad at social and moral values. Hence the ironic title of the movie. The only character we can identify with is the victim of the story. All the other characters are merciless and elitist profit-mongers that made me very uncomfortable. I wouldn't want to sound harsh, but similarly to the world of programming and coding (the FB world), this movie mainly pictures individuals devoid of human emotions and completely efficiency and productivity driven. Cold, empty, heartless beings I wouldn't dare to call people. Practically what you could define as machines. And these exact same people apparently rule our world.
So this is truly a Fincher film, beautiful filmmaking serving a solid plot to point out how heartless and hollow our times really are. Or how emptiness and superficiality finally took over. The same issues he was criticizing in Fight Club, only with a lighter tone.
This movie isn't about FB. It's a social commentary about the world we live in. I think most of the people didn't "get" this yet. And as usual with Fincher, it's delivered in the most brutal, direct and cold way as can be.
Best 2010 movie so far, but I don't think I'll watch it again.