You gotta 'like' this!

Rating: 9/10 (7 October 2010)

A nerdy Harvard student blabbers on about numerous topics with his girlfriend whom he also chooses to ignore eye contact with while being inattentive to her reactions and responses. Understandably, she 'blocks' him while calling him an #@#hole. The dejected nerd blogs his agony out in distaste about his girlfriend and then creates a site for ranking girls from college, thereby creating the platform that would shape the future of everyone's communication. It was from that spark of social rejection that the 'Social Network' got ignited.
David Fincher's glorious record of captivating movies (Fight Club, Se7en and that curious case...) leaves fans with great anticipation from a bio-epic about Facebook. Based on Ben Mezrich's 'The Accidental Billionaires' and screen-written by Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network is a powerhouse of a movie with superlative performances and adroit direction, together providing an exhilarating experience.
From Adventureland comes this incredible actor Jesse Eisenberg who plays Mark Zuckerberg in his college days when the inception of Facebook occurred. The film revolves around Eisenberg portraying the nerdy entrepreneur whose intellect and creativity surpass his peers. Alienation in this form acts as a catalyst towards his goals and the whip-like dialogue delivery together with the portrayal of a focused persona make this a commendable act. Providing the emotional enrichment with his soulful performance is Andrew Garfield, playing Eduardo, Mark's best friend and Facebook's CFO whose wit and intuition are only undone by his vulnerability. Garfield is simply brilliant with his emotions and as a sufferer in this tale of greed, he is responsible for balancing the otherwise stone cold attitudes from others. While it is the duo's unyielding ambition that confronts the Winklevoss brothers who threatened to shut down the social network they couldn't invent, it was their innocence that Sean Parker seized to gain his leverage in facebook's exponential growth. Justin Timberlake is the phenomenon in this network. While playing the co-founder of Napster who convinces Zuckerberg to push Facebook across continents, he emphasizes that greed fuels growth and their combined intelligence would make them icons of tomorrow. The most explosive scenes are with him in the restaurant where they meet for the first time and then at the night club when he speaks to Mark over the blaring music. The dialogues are essentially the summation of what facebook eventually becomes. Justin's ease in carrying out this mesmerizing role has much to do with his showmanship in music videos and stage. The distinction in the principles of the three protagonists is striking and without any bloodshed, the movie delineates invisible scars wrought by money, zeal and betrayal upon them.
David Fincher had no cast of repute to work with. Instead, he did what his profile demanded of him. He directed the actors toward the brilliant screenplay, thus drawing closer the gaps between a docu-drama and a page turning bio-epic. With every new idea that crosses Zuckerberg's mind while he's still implementing the previous idea, while Parker urges him to think bigger and while the 'Winklevi' plot to overthrow Zuckerberg's reign over social networking, anxiety and curiosity abound as indeed, we all 'like' to know the origins of our current networking portal. The movie is a verbal ball-game with several intense confrontations between the actors that will make the DVD purchase worthwhile. Fincher and writer Sorkin, with their profound talents have delivered one of the best movies in recent years. The cinematography is outstanding with apt lighting and angles that convey everything without a word being said. The visual effects that enabled one actor to play the twins is also stunning while the background score enhanced every potent scene.
Behind the veil of being a 'facebook' movie, we have young ambition backed with business shrewdness that catapults to phenomenal success; only after betraying a best friend and partner. The apt ending of Zuckerberg sitting alone in an office in front of his laptop screen, awaiting a response from a friend request showcases the irony of ironies.
The Social Network might appeal more to the younger crowds, most of whom would be avid facebook users. This exemplary drama, flashed back during Zuckerberg's legal trial is so scintillating, real and engaging that its 'poke' will warrant a 'like' from you.

8.893 on a scale of 1-10.