Fact or mostly fiction the film is still a masterpiece and a must see!

Rating: 10/10 (3 October 2010)

The best reviewed film (so far) this year and early Oscar front-runner 'THE SOCIAL NETWORK' is upon us! David Fincher (one of my all time favorite directors) directs this adaptation of the popular book 'The Accidental Billionaires: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal' by Ben Mezrich from a script written by Aaron Sorkin (who also wrote 'A FEW GOOD MEN', 'THE American PRESIDENT' and created the TV series 'THE WEST WING' to name a few of his credits). The book, if you haven't heard, is an account of how the internet social networking site 'facebook' was founded, mostly centering on the lawsuits that followed it's immediate success and the relationships of the people involved. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Mark Zuckerberg (the majority stockholder) and Andrew Garfield co-stars as co-founder Eduardo Saverin. The real Zuckerberg fought hard against this film's release (in this form) fearing it will tarnish his image and he denies it bears much factual bearing at all, to real life events, but the real Saverin was the main consultant on the book. Fact or mostly fiction the film is still a masterpiece and a must see!
The story is mostly set in 2003 beginning at Harvard University in the fall and then flashing back and forth between court procedures involving the litigation battles over the ownership of 'facebook'. As the film opens Zuckerberg is dumped by his girlfriend Erica (played by Rooney Mara, who was just cast as the lead in Fincher's upcoming remake of 'THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO'). Mark is so upset that he goes back to his dorm room, gets wasted and blogs about her and then creates a brief internet site called 'facemash' comparing Harvard girls to each other in ranking of 'hotness'. This gives him notoriety and he is approached by the Winklevoss brothers (both played by Armie Hammer, in addition to a stand-in) about programming an internet social networking site that would be exclusive to Harvard students, in an attempt to help get them laid. Zuckerberg leads the brothers on, as well as their business partner Divya Narendra (played by Max Minghella, son of award winning director Anthony Minghella), and tells them he's working on their project while coming up with one of his own, facebook, in an attempt to beat them out the gate. He enlists the help of his best friend Eduardo to finance and promote his venture, with the return promise of thirty percent of the profits, and later Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake), the co-founder of Napster. Zuckerberg becomes inpatient with his long time friend Eduardo and tricks him out of the majority of his stock sharing which (along with the Winklevoss dispute) leads to the core legal battle of the film and the heart and humanity of the story.
I've been a fan of Fincher ever since his first feature film 'ALIEN 3' (which I'll admit doesn't match it's two predecessors but is still a very underrated sequel, much better than the 4th installment as well as the 'ALIEN VS. PREDATOR' films). He's been responsible for some of my all time favorite films ('FIGHT CLUB', 'SEVEN' and 'ZODIAC') and he's one of the most diverse big name directors working in film today. Here he demonstrates universally appealing thematic abilities (like he attempted with 'THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON', my least favorite of his films) and I predict he'll finally take home a much deserved Oscar come award time early next year. I also think the film will win best picture and screenplay (Sorkin's script is so witty and brilliant it would be a crime if it doesn't win). The acting is all very impressive as well and Eisenberg, who I've always been a fan of, should finally be able to shed the 'poor man's Michael Cera' image he's been labeled with by many. I'm a big fan of Cera but Eisenberg has been around longer and done much more serious and diverse work; after this film's release the two should have no problem standing apart. The supporting players are all more than adequate and the film's score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is mesmerizing. It's still a little too early to over confidently predict but I'm guessing no film in the next three months (and definitely none already released) will be able to top it come award time.
Facebook is probably the most popular and relevant invention in use by the majority of society in at least the last decade and for that reason many say they're not interested in seeing this film; they don't want to further support mankind's biggest fad. This film isn't really about facebook though, it's a dramatic character study. It's about two best friends who are torn apart by money and fame, envy, the desire to get laid and the desire to be approved and envied by others. The film could be about the invention of anything and it wouldn't change much as long as the characters remained the same. This is an intriguing, amazingly fast paced character study with plenty of litigation battle action to keep anyone from falling asleep. The movie is much more entertaining than it might sound and it has a lot of emotion and heart as well. While the Zuckerberg character is appalling and hate worthy at times he's also a well intentioned and good heart-ed person at other times. He uses his show-off smart-ass pretentious nature as a defense mechanism for his insecurities and need to feel liked. He's a flawed anti-hero but a likable one and those are the most interesting in my opinion. The character, whether true to life or not, is the relate-able heart and core of the film and makes for one of the best stories, if not the best, to come to cinematic life this year.
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