A Great Film Technically and Emotionaly

Rating: 10/10 (19 September 2013)

Back in 2010, I avoided this movie when it first came out because I wasn't really interested in Facebook and the poster looked strange. I was 100% wrong about this movie. David Fincher's "The Social Network" is one of the finest films I have ever had the privilege of watching. This is a showcase for a great director, a fabulous writer, and a great cast of characters and actors.
The story is about the inception of Facebook back in a dorm room of Harvard University. After a date goes wrong because he is too arrogant, Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) drunkenly creates the prototype of Facebook (called FaceMash) with his best (and ONLY) friend Eduardo Saverin (played by the brilliant Andrew Garfield) The resulting controversy lead the Winklevoss twins (both played by Armie Hammer) to hire Mark to develop an idea of theirs. Mark arrogantly steals the basis of the idea, improves upon it, and creates Facebook. Another big cat interested in Mark's new thing is Napster founder Sean Parker (played surprisingly well by Justin Timberlake) He manipulates Mark to screw Eduardo out of the company because he wants a big stake in the next big thing. All this plays out in flashback as we see Mark in the middle of two lawsuits simultaneously, one from the Winklevosses, and the other from Eduardo.
One of the big keys in how the story plays out is Oscar Winner Aaron Sorkin's unique style of delivery and framing. He uses his trademark rapid-fire dialog and complicated characterizations to great effect. Of course no writer's script is gold without the right director to guide it to the screen. David Fincher works wonders here, giving us the proper mood inside the campus of Harvard and layered and nuanced performances. Both made the right choice of making the story a very cold one, even though we can root for some characters. Friendships are broken and it hurts.
The cast is amazing, and unexpected. Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark as a cold conniving nerd who is stung by the fact that girls hate him because he's so arrogant. He wants to prove to everyone that he is worth something and that he isn't a nobody, even at the cold cost of losing his only friend Eduardo. Andrew Garfield (who I think was unfairly snubbed for an Oscar nod that year) has a lot of meat too. he may not be the right approach for getting Facebook off the ground financially, but his heart's in the right place and he is loyal to his friend, until his friend royally screws him and he comes after him with lawyers. I mention these two specifically because I feel that that's what the story is really about, these two friends driven apart by this uncontrollably growing monster. Justin Timberlake is deliciously cocky and manipulative as Sean, but he is also pretty brilliant about how to get Facebook off the ground. He's not really a villain, but he just wants another huge new creation under his belt to show off to others.
I also have to mention, on the technical side, Jeff Cronenweth's cinematography and the editing by Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter. Cronenweth gives a strangely warm lighting against a cold story. What i mean is, it's warm and shaded during the Harvard scenes, and as soon as we meet Sean parker in Palo Alto, it become cold and more real. Like Wally Pfister, Croneweth know how to keep the audiences' attention to the detail and give them a rich palette to look at, but its there to tell the story. The editors Wall and Baxter compliment the story and the dialog beautifully. It finished the sentences, criss-crosses between the lawsuits and the flashbacks, and keeps the flow very well.
This movie is a wonder. I am still shocked that it did not win Best Picture or Best Director for Fincher. It won a few (Score, editing, and Adapted Screenplay) but not the ones it was seriously predicted to win. And like my review for Inception suggests, both this and Inception were passed over for a safer film that is full of clichÃ©s and boring characters, The King's Speech. This a modern film for the ages. it tells a modern story with modern dialog and storytelling, but is still timeless. Its one of my top 10 favorites, and if you like Facebook or hate it, check it out anyway. It is a treat full of great characters and a tragic story of greed and lust for glory and acceptance.