slickly made but relentlessly creepy

Rating: 3/10 (17 December 2010)

Being in the computer biz I was interested in some of the ins and outs of the rise to glory of Facebook. This movie has the feel of truth as far as the character of the individuals depicted and what I know of the backstory. But for me that was the problem. Almost everyone in the film was creepy and despicable, and the lesson I drew was that this is the way things work in the Brave New World of virtual friendships. That's fine as far as it goes but by the time I escaped the theater I had a dank aftertaste in my mouth.
The dialog is pretty snappy. I kind of liked the music, but it was a bit overbearing in those big disco/party scenes. I try to avoid these in real life, preferring to have conversations with people where I can actually hear and understand what that other person is saying. I didn't have the choice here.
Too many scenes were just irritating to watch. Is everyone at Harvard really a complete, overbearing, condescending superficial bore with an overinflated sense of entitlement? Interesting scene with Larry Summers, who has always struck me as one of these. But it gets tiresome.
Who do you root for in this movie? After more than an hour and a half I the only one I found was the girl from B.U. that called Mark and asshole and blew him off. His partner is decent but hopelessly naive, the other parties in the lawsuit are only marginally less creepy and arrogant than the main character.
Easily the most overrated movie of the year.