The Curious Case of Mark Zuckerberg

Rating: 9/10 (27 December 2010)

Spellbindingly fast paced conversation between a college couple...
At the end of it - "I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that ... you're an asshole!"(silenced by the Indian censors) asserts the girlfriend, Jessica Albright (Rooney Mara) and ditches the guy. He's angry & confused but doesn't know how to react. Returns to his hostel room, gets drunk, bitches about her bra size & family name in his blog and finally designs a site, Facemash.com to rate "hotness" of girls from different colleges. The site gets around 22,000 clicks in around 2 hours which crashes his (Harvard) college network & gets him a 6 months academic probation. This hurt & confused Computer-nerd-genius is Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg, outstandingly self-restrained), the youngest billionaire & founder of Facebook.
I'd read that a film was being made based on a book on the Facebook founder but I knew about the director being David Fincher only after it released. I was more than excited for a Fincher film and these initial 10 minutes proved my enthusiasm right. Then on, it kept me right on edge. The story is effectively narrated through the progression of two simultaneous lawsuits: First one by the Winklevoss twins (both played cleverly by Armie Hammer, thanks to digital trickery) on Mark & Eduardo Savarin (Andrew Garfield) & the Second one by Eduardo on Mark. Another highlight of this movie was Justin Timberlake playing celebrity Sean Parker who brought a great impact on the music industry by starting sites such as Napster, Plaxo & also seemingly inspired Mark to grow Facebook. The characters have a definitive nature of their own & the cast of actors comfortably fill their shoes.
Based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich, the screenplay (Aaron Sorkin) is carefully filled witty & humorous monologues, twists & turns as well as heavy-handed fast paced dialogues which keep the viewer engaged throughout the 2 hour runtime and works on many different layers. This being a movie about the designing of a website, there was a great danger of it going bonkers. Surprisingly, it is filled with computer details which it carefully skims over (just like Syriana, A Beautiful Mind) and saves the layman, the trouble of grasping technical details. As for the ending, it left me satisfied in a way, it winded it's way upto there.
Director Fincher (of Fight Club fame) has a unique kick-ass style of his own (like all great directors) with respect to his narration and the way he brings about the end without compromising on the detailing and story-line. Collaborating with his regular Cinematographer (Jeff Cronenweth) & Editors (Baxter & Wall) seems to have been a good decision as the technical detailing of the film was brilliant. The melodious soundtracks blended into the scenes and completed the "feel" of the movie. I managed to catch up with an interview where Zuckerberg himself gave a nod to the casting, costumes, acting and other details, although he didn't agree to certain cinematic liberties taken. (He said he didn't start Facebook due to a failed relationship but agreed that those were the exact same shirts he used to wear!)
This movie could easily have been the run of the year at the Academy. But against Inception, this one should hopefully end up with more than a few nominations. I hope it at least bags an Oscar for an adapted screenplay (and squeeze in for Best Director too, please!).
9 / 10
(minus one, because my 10/10 belongs to Fincher's Fight Club)