a movie of and for our times

Rating: 9/10 (24 February 2011)

"The Social Network" captures the zeitgeist of the moment better than any movie of recent times.
This Aaron Sorkin adaptation of the Ben Mezrich nonfiction novel, "The Accidental Billionaires," purports to tell the story of Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, who rose from simple Harvard student to become the youngest billionaire in the world. I say "purports" because clearly the movie takes certain liberties with many of the facts of the story (most egregiously, perhaps, the fact that Zuckerberg actually had a girlfriend during the time depicted here) and, thus, the movie isn't really all that valuable as a documentary account of the way things actually went down. What the movie does do incredibly well is to capture the mood of an era and to tell a compelling story for our times.
One of "The Social Network's" greatest strengths is its willingness to feature a protagonist who is not all that easy to like. As portrayed in the film, Zuckerberg is a brilliant, amoral, petulant, socially inept, overcompensating nerd who doesn't really care who he hurts on his way to the top. Yet, oddly, Zuckerberg seems to have no real yen for fame and fortune; indeed his initial impetus for creating Facebook seems to arise as much out of a desire to get back at his girlfriend for breaking up with him as to become rich and famous (those being mere ancillary benefits). Zuckerberg also spends much of his time trying to backstab those around him, including his best friend and roommate, Eduardo Severin, who is the initial source of funding for the project and who becomes the tale's ethical counterweight to the morally bankrupt Zuckerberg. But Zuckerberg is also eventually sued by the Winklevoss brothers, some fellow Harvard students, for allegedly appropriating their initial social-networking idea and making it his own. Zuckerberg's motive for being a first-class jerk seems to be jealousy born out of his inability to fit in with the "jock" class at the school. Yet, every attempt he makes at ingratiating himself with others – particularly women – only serves to reinforce the sociopathic nature of his personality.
Yet, there's something about Zuckerberg that keeps him from becoming entirely loathsome and that actually makes us identify with him to some extent. Perhaps, it's that very awkwardness - that inability to master or even understand the social codes by which relationships work - that makes Zuckerberg a more sympathetic figure than he perhaps deserves to be. As one of the characters late in the film says in assessing his character, "You're not an a-hole, Mark; you're just trying so hard to be." Or perhaps it's the subtlety and depth that Jesse Eisenberg brings to the role that results in that effect.
"The Social Network" is like a fine Greek tragedy being played out in modern dress, except that Zuckerberg's "fall" occurs mainly in the realm of human relationships and fineness of character and not of fame, fortune or status (since Zuckerberg still seems to have all three still pretty much intact at this point). When, at the end, the creator of Facebook sits all alone at a laptop, having lost the one person who was ever really a true friend to him, and meekly asks permission to use the law office's computer, we see the tragic emptiness of a man who's sold his soul to the devil – if, indeed, he had a soul to sell in the first place. It is that ambiguity that lifts "The Social Network" above the traditional morality play and makes it speak directly to our time.
There is literally not a single performance – whether major or minor – in this film that is less than outstanding. In addition to Eisenberg, there is tremendous work from Andrew Garfield as Eduardo; the perpetually underrated Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, the crassly manipulative creator of Napster; and Armie Hammer as the Harvard rowing twins (lots of CGI here) who fall victim to Zuckerberg's conniving - and become surprisingly sympathetic figures as a result. There are also fine performances from Rashida Jones ("Parks and Recreation") and David Selby (Quentin Collins from "Dark Shadows" for the really old-timers in the audience), among many others.
As director, David Fincher keeps the movie racing along at a breakneck pace while maintaining a complex balance between flashbacks and flash forwards that at no time become confusing for the audience. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have also composed a simple but haunting piano score that nicely underlines the seriousness of the piece. Fincher and Sorkin make every moment count, and the final confrontation between Zuckerberg and Eduardo - in which years of unspoken resentments suddenly erupt to the surface - is the most dramatically explosive scene I've seen in ages.
For all its topicality and relevance, "The Social Network" definitely seems more attuned to the down side of modern technology than the upside (see the recent populist uprisings in Egypt), highlighting how obsessive social networking can lead people to behave in ways that tear at the very fabric that holds society together. After all, in the old days, one could vent one's grievances against others in private and be done with it. Now, with the ability to do near-constant blogging, our hurtful words, petty tantrums and malicious actions can go out to a mass audience, ruin other people's reputations, then come back and bite us big time in the end. That's the lesson Zuckerberg is forced to learn all throughout the movie - and it is one we would all be wise to heed.