A well made film that draws out what it can from a rather limited topic.

Rating: 8/10 (19 October 2010)

It's hard to make a film about Facebook sound interesting. How do you jazz up the most banal of topics? It would be like trying to sell a storyline gravitated on the walk to the shops. How many people would spend their hard earned dough watching someone buying a pint of milk and a few hundred grams of Crunchy Nut. Any takers? No? Well, you're just going to have to go with it. Stick with me please as I give you the lowdown on the hottest bit of reel this side of Inception. This recent release didn't get 8 stars for nothing, you know.
The Social Network is a film about Facebook yet there is barely a poke, like or wall post in sight. This is not, as one may imagine at first glance, a rom com played out through the interweb. The focus of David Fincher's latest flick is the stuff behind the scenes, the stuff many of us have little idea about and have even less interest in.
The plot is simple: Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is a Harvard Computer Science geek desperate to join the frat scene. He invents Facebook although others are keen to make claim to their stakes. We thus see the rise of the company through a retrospective retelling of events as scrutinised in a rather awkward pre-court hearing.
The narrative naturally gravitates the viewers attention to focus on the Zuckerberg's blunt autisms. We feel his pain, his frustrations and his vision though, because of the man he is, we remain distant. This is a guy that pays more attention to the architecture of a nightclub than the music it plays. Yet there is an honesty about his straightforward manner that appeals, that amuses.
Just as this is no triumphant celebration of the youngest billionaire in the States, neither is it a scathing critique of those that launched successful assaults to rob him of his dollars. The Winklevoss twins, played by two people but both featuring Armie Hammer's head, are what we would call 'preppy'. They are snobs who readily use Daddy's contacts to yield the desirable results. But we don't hate them for it. No, they seem like nice enough chaps. Instead, the viewer is drawn to giggle at this double-act's forthcoming whit. Think Price William meets the Chuckle Brothers. The best thing about the Winklevoss pair has to be the perplexing technical mastery at work that enables the one actor's head to be digitally sewn on to another actor's body to give the illusion of identical twins that are always stood side by side!
The biggest surprise undoubtedly has to be the coherent acting of Justin Timberlake. In the role of Sean Parker, the bankrupt Napster founder who flirts with drugs and underage girls, Timberlake adds a bit of spice to the mix. Parker pushes both Facebook and the narrative to more exciting places. Whilst his revolutionary spirit is most prominent, we are occasionally reminded of the geek behind the flashy façade. Ultimately though, we, just like Zuckerberg, admire the man that pioneered the rise of music sharing software and the subsequent decline of the music industry. This is the story of youth fighting back.
The Social Network is also a story of the geek fighting back and in order to connect the audience with the social outcast a series of subplots are set up. One of these is a rather dire love story. This underdeveloped series of exchanges is placed on the periphery of the narrative. It seems as though they have been tagged on to the first an last minutes of the film in order to round off a rather open ending and give the impression of a slightly more traditional narrative structure. All that it does though is give a rather soppy, nice finish to an otherwise different sort of film.
A fairly uneventful 120 minutes puts The Social Network more in line with Fincher's prior release, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, than his earlier thrillers, Fight Club and Seven. Although a grand climax is neither built nor delivered, there is not a minute of stagnation. The two hours rapidly disappear as the audience remains hooked by the tightest of scripts whilst an abundance of commendable performances bring a turbulent blend of conflict, passion and humour to the screen. The Social Network is a well made film that draws out what it can from a rather limited topic.