Riveting Fincher/Sorkin collaboration

Rating: Null/10 (29 August 2011)

I was a very reluctant user of the Facebook page and I also had doubts about seeing this movie which I thought could not possibly be interesting. Plus, when I heard that the writer was Aaron Sorkin and the director, David Fincher - that just seemed like an odd combination.
Pleasantly surprised, I couldn't believe how good it was. The character of Mark Zuckerberg is unsympathetic to put it mildly. I was baffled by how petty, jealous and stone cold he was. Then, the revelation. This is a movie about a screwed up person who can't relate to anyone and he unites everybody else in creating the page. How ironic.
There is no happy ending, no perfect resolution between the conflicts and no character you can absolutely root for here. That is quite an achievement. Not even the Andrew Garfield character who is supposed to be the sympathetic one. He may be the one who gets screwed over, but we realise as we learn more, that he is also misguided in thinking that his way is right. Don't we just all hate those ads that he wants on the site.
All the performances are great, but I especially liked Armie Hammer's Vinklevoss twins. It was quite difficult as I heard it, but he really nailed the different nuances of two people who look exactly alike.
Fincher has made some less than stellar movies like Alien3 and I was not a big fan of Se7ven either, but this is one to be noticed. One big minus, though is Justin Timberlake.