Ironic Biopic of a Social Outcast Capturing the Zeitgeist of Online Social Connection

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2010)

This propulsive 2010 film is probably the most conspicuous case of product placement in recent Hollywood memory. Director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin prove to be a particularly effective team in bringing to vivid life the somewhat trite story of the betrayal behind a Web site that reshaped the chore of networking into the zeitgeist of the online community reaching 500 million participants. The irony is that the movie is not really about the Facebook phenomenon itself but its opaque creator, nineteen-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, a socially impervious Harvard-based hacker extraordinaire whom the creators would have you believe developed Facebook as a way to get back at the girl who dumps him and the elitists who reject him. However, Sorkin is far too shrewd to turn this into a simple revenge story. Instead, he uses these factors as catalysts in his inspiration to ignite the basic need we have to judge other people in the safe haven of a site populated by people who are otherwise socially disconnected.
The story's framing device centers around the detailed depositions given in two concurrent lawsuits against Zuckerberg - one filed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, identical twins and star members of Harvard's rowing team, along with their business partner Divya Narendra, and the other filed by Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg's former best friend. The Winklevoss twins filed a suit claiming they originated the idea for Facebook when Zuckerberg agreed to help them build a Harvard-only community site. The second suit cuts deeper in that Saverin, a Facebook co-founder, finds his ownership in the company cut from a third to one-tenth of one percent. The decision is not without merit since Saverin's singular determination in eliciting advertisers to the site did nothing to help the site gain popularity. At the same time, it reflected Zuckerberg's socially inert nature – whether true or not - showing he is incapable of maintaining a deep friendship not out of malice or greed but because he has the unrelenting fortitude to recognize he has a better idea to code and implement despite the personal consequences. It's a fascinating conundrum that requires Fincher's emotionally precise direction to make it work effectively.
In a tough role, Jesse Eisenberg ("Adventureland") plays Zuckerberg close to the vest by showing sparks of humanity with measured acuity. It's a well-observed performance that relies on keeping a clear distance from the viewer. Justin Timberlake does well in the showy supporting role of Napster co-founder Sean Parker, a savvy, paranoid poseur whose bona fide sleaziness provides the impetus Facebook needs to turn it into a global phenomenon. However, it's Andrew Garfield who gives the movie the little heart it has as Saverin simply because we feel his devastation in missing a once-in-anyone's-lifetime opportunity by trusting a friend whom he thought had his back. There are sharp, near-cameo turns by Douglas Urbanski ("Inside Job") as Harvard president Larry Summers, contemptuously arrogant in his dismissal of the Winklevoss' plea for support in their case against Zuckerberg; Rooney Mara who makes her character's numbing rejection of Zuckerberg palpable; and Rashida Jones ("I Love You Man") as a junior defense attorney who provides Zuckerberg the only honest summation of his legal chances to win. Fincher has made an intentionally cool, often detached film, compounded by a jarring Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross score, but the hope of making a real, honest connection always seem to be within reach.