The Year's Best

Rating: 10/10 (2 October 2010)

Aaron Sorkin called this film a court room drama so I will too, The Social Network is directed by David Fincher and stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. The film takes place at Harvard in 2003.
The film begins with 19 year old Mark Zuckerberg (Eisenberg) on a date with a Boston University student Erica Albright. At the date Erica breaks up with Mark because of how rude he is. Mark tries to get her back but is unable to. Then Mark gets drunk and starts blogging about how much he dislikes his girlfriend while at the same time with his roommates creating a website known as facesmash where students at Harvard choose which one of their female peers are more attractive. The site crashes the Harvard network because it got 22,000 hits extremely quickly at four in the morning. The film then goes on to show how the Winklevoss twins hire Mark to create a social networking site. The film cuts back and forth to the future where Mark Zuckerberg is simultaneously being sued by his best friend Eduardo (Garfield) and the Winklevoss twins.
The screenplay for this film was absolutely brilliant. Like many people when I heard that there was going to be a movie about the founders of Facebook I was not too excited, but this film really is not about the founders. It is about the relationships they have with each other and the dark deeds they did to get Facebook going. The writing is very fast paced as well, just like the world of Facebook. Sorkin fills the script with brilliant wit, and is able to keep a bunch of kids in a house interesting for a surprisingly long time. The characters are extremely well developed and I support them all yet I see their faults. The end of this film is absolutely brilliantly as well, one of the best conclusions I have seen in years. If Aaron Sorkin does not win an Oscar for his screenplay then I do not know what the world is coming to.
The direction for this film by the Oscar nominated David Fincher was stunning as well. First of all, the rowing scene. That scene was some of the best cinematography I have ever seen and I remember turning to my friend and saying to him that I bet this film wins for the best cinematography at the Oscars and he said that he would not take that bet even though he would get every other film that came out this year. Now personally I would have taken that bet because the odds are fantastic. Fincher got great performances from all of the actors and I really liked seeing how he evolved from really a director of cult hits like Fight Club to something so beautiful as this that everyone can enjoy. Like Sorkin, I believe he deserves an Oscar for this film as well but I do not think it is as high of a chance as Sorkin winning one.
I was surprised at how good the acting was in this film. Usually when I think Jesse Eisenberg I think about Michael Cera because they always play the same sort of awkward roles. But The Social Network is to Eisenberg is like what Boogie Nights was to Wahlberg. It shows the world that not only can Eisenberg act, he can act really well. His magnificent portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg may even earn him an Oscar nomination. The way he moved and his facial expressions, and even that blank stare on his face was just magnificent. This is the first time I have seen Andrew Garfield act and I thought he did a fine job as well as Mark's best friend and the CFO of Facebook Eduardo Saverin. Not Oscar nomination worthy but he made me care about his character that was being left behind the rest of the Facebook founders. Justin Timberlake played the part of Sean Parker and had some great comedic moments in the film. I have always respected Timberlake as an actor ever since I saw him in Alpha Dog and in this film I thought he was perfect. The rest of the cast was also great throughout the film.
The score for this film I liked a lot as well. It was basically almost all sort of electronic sounds for the most part which really worked with the internet theme of the film. The only part that I remember where it did not sound electronically was the rowing scene I mentioned in the paragraph about the direction was that very famous classical piece that I do not know the name of. The score was perfect for this film.
Overall I give this film a 10/10. There was absolutely no way it could be improved in my personal opinion and I believe it is a perfect film. I would not be surprised if this film wins Best Picture at the Oscars, I know I would support it to. In my review of The Town I stated that it was the best film of the year that I have seen so far. Well The Social Network blows it out of the water. Everyone must see this, stop reading and head to the theatre.