Acting

Rating: 7/10 (27 August 2011)

This film was decent. Not bad, but not amazing either. Garfield and Eisenberg were amazing as actors though. The way that Eisenberg manages to portray this eccentric, socially inept and seemingly cold character in a way that still makes him almost endearing is an art in my opinion. There have been few characters that I have like and hated equally and simultaneously and I think the film would have failed without Eisenberg's natural ability to engage the audience while portraying a character that is essentially abhorrent. Garfield's character seems to lack all the emotion that Eisenberg's doesn't possess. The scene in which he discovers that he has lost the majority of shares in in a company he helped to build is superbly performed on the part of Garfield. The scene remains captivating even with the annoying interruptions of Timberlake's character. Justin Timerlake's character simply annoyed in a way that I can't put my finger on. It wasn't that he was a bad actor or that the character of Sean Parker came off successfully as a moron but I just hated every aspect of the character. So he was a 24 year old irksome, millionaire who liked to show off. I just didn't care for the character at all and didn't think it did much for Justin in his bid to prove himself to the acting world. The also think the Winklevi twins played by Armie Hammer and Armie Hammer were too typical. The characters didn't have much depth beyond the whole "rich guys with rich daddy that play sports and happen to have a light bulb idea that someone steals". The fact that one has a heart and the other doesn't isn't much character development. Yes I get there is a limited amount of time and not everyone's life story can be portrayed in a film but as they are quite important I wish they had been executed as more than just the vengeful rich kids that row.
To conclude I enjoyed the performances of Eisenberg and Garfield. The writers and director did very well on the two characters but unfortunately not enough time was spent on all the other characters. In truth I give the film 6.5/10 but seeing as no decimals are allowed, I kindly rounded up.