Sorkin serves up respectable biography of computer generation's 'Citizen Kane'

Rating: 7/10 (1 March 2011)

Aaron's Sorkin's screenplay, based on the 2009 non-fiction book 'The Accidental Billionaires', attempts to turn Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, into the 'Citizen Kane' of the computer generation. Like 'Kane', it's the chronicle of the rise of a boy genius to the heights of power, who is a dogged by a character flaw. The question in both films is whether each of the protagonists truly has an 'Achilles heel' that tarnishes their legacy or is it some sort of unconscious jealousy on the part of the films' scenarists who seek to drag these boy wonders down from their high perch in order to take them down a peg or two in the public eye?
As an only occasional user of Facebook, I hold no implicit disdain for the social networking site that Mark Zuckerberg created. I've noticed that some internet posters hate Facebook so much that they refuse to be objective about the film. If they were honest, they would recognize that the material the film is based on, is difficult to make into a compelling film. 'The Social Network' IS dry material and veteran director David Fincher has managed to turn this story into something that moves along at a fairly brisk pace. I also wonder why some posters find the subject matter, not to be worthy enough to be made into a feature length film. Certainly the way in which Zuckerberg rises to the top as the world's youngest billionaire, to my mind, is a compelling enough subject to merit the attention of the average film goer.
Sorkin's technique is to tell Zuckerberg's story as a double flashback: the two alternating depositions in which a bored looking Zuckerberg must give testimony at. First is the Winklevoss brothers' lawsuit, fellow students at Harvard who claimed Zuckerberg ripped off their original idea for a Facebook-like platform. The other lawsuit is instituted at the behest of Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg's former friend, who provided some small start-up capital in the early days of their business venture together.
While I was overjoyed that Jesse Eisenberg finally got to play a role where he wasn't a geeky good guy, as 'The Social Network' moves along, his performance as Mark Zuckerberg becomes a bit one-note. It's really not Eisenberg's fault since the script calls for him to play Zuckerberg as both the manic overachiever and sullen bad boy who basically remains the same throughout the narrative (the real Zuckerberg doesn't see himself worthy as a dramatic character—he's quoted as saying, in substance, that he spent most of his time writing computer code during those heady days). A bit more interesting is Eduardo (Andrew Garfield) who gets to emote a lot more, especially after he discovers that his best friend and partner has ripped him off royally! (Garfield's Eduardo also collects a few laughs when he attempts to deal with a girlfriend who will not change her mind about dumping him).
What 'The Social Network' really comes down to is our verdict on Zuckerberg's moral character. And in my opinion, that verdict must be a mixed one. Certainly, the Winklevoss part of the lawsuit seemed to me to be without merit. In the end, we find out they prevailed to the tune of $65 million but did Zuckerberg really copy any of their ideas? They may have had the same concept but web pages are all in the details—and it was Zuckerberg who came up with all the unique ideas. As for Saverin, Zuckerberg probably would not have become successful if he took the cautious advice of his business partner. By seeking out the wild and unpredictable Napster founder Sean Parker (who Saverin couldn't stomach at all), Zuckerberg found a partner who truly had the connections to make things happen. Nonetheless, the way in which Zuckerberg and his new business associates 'tricked' Saverin, was reprehensible. Saverin counted Zuckerberg as a friend and Zuckerberg took advantage of this fact because he knew Saverin would never read the fine print of the contract he was signing. Zuckerberg was right about one thing: Saverin, as a successful Harvard business student, should have read the fine print and hired an attorney to go over the contract he was about to sign.
In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles offers up the image of 'Rosebud', a childhood keepsake which symbolized the loss of love for the film's protagonist. Here, in 'The Social Network', Sorkin serves up Zuckerberg's 'Rosebud' as something much more mundane: a college sweetheart who rejected him. The audience gets to have their 'Rosebud' moment when Zuckerberg tries to send a Facebook friend request to his lost love. In an earlier scene in a restaurant, Zuckerberg can't bring himself to apologize for his crude blogging when he was a student at Harvard, and ends up begging his ex to join him in a private tete-a-tete where presumably he'll try to rationalize his behavior once again. It's a long stretch to suggest that Zuckerberg's occasional sour disposition is all due to his rejection by an ex-girlfriend. The implication is that this is the one thing Zuckerberg can't have—and it consumes him (just as Kane/Hearst pines for the lack of love in his childhood).
'The Social Network' is no masterpiece as some have maintained here on the internet. It's really a workmanlike story chronicling the machinations of a driven overachiever who becomes insanely successful in our new computer age. Mark Zuckerberg's story is certainly worth watching at least once. If I do see this film again, I'll be sure to concentrate on the technical aspects since I'm quite satisfied that I've already absorbed most of the major plot points and internal/external arcs of the principal characters.