"Wall Street" for a Whole New Generation.

Rating: 8/10 (22 September 2011)

"The Social Network" depicts the founding of Facebook, THE social experience of the twenty-first century, by the most socially inept person imaginable. Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is a Harvard undergrad whose girlfriend (Rooney Mara) just dumped him. In retaliation, Mark hacks the Harvard computer network to create Facemash, a website ranking the attractiveness of Harvard undergrads, which draws the attention of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer). The Winklevosses want to make a social networking site that requires a Harvard email address for membership and they want Mark to program it for them. Never actually working on their website, he instead uses it to gain a 1-month head start on his own similarly-themed website: "The Facebook." With the assistance of his friend and newly appointed CFO Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), Mark will turn "The Facebook" to the international force that it is today.
The film is, at its core, the thematic successor to Bennett Miller's "Capote" (2005): a tale in which creation ("In Cold Blood" / Facebook) leads to the emotional destruction of its creator (Truman Capote / Mark Zuckerberg). The creation of FaceMash (and Mark's subsequent angry-blogging) destroyed his relationship with his ex girlfriend (Rooney Mara); Facebook destroyed Mark's friendship with Eduardo (Mark cut him out of his 1/3 ownership of the company, for which Eduardo sued him for $600 million - only one of two lawsuits Mark was simultaneously involved with). By the film's conclusion, he even grows disillusioned with Sea Parker, who is arrested after snorting cocaine off of underage interns. The film's final scene (where Mark friend-requests his ex, sits back in his chair and continually refreshes the page until the credits) is one of the most heartbreaking in recent memory.
The film brilliantly frames the story of Facebook's genesis in Eduardo's lawsuit against Mark. David Fincher successfully negotiates these parallel continuities with perfect clarity, using the descendant timeline (the lawsuit) to elaborate the antecedent timeline (Facebook's creation). Transitioning between these timelines in a complimentary fashion without creating temporal confusion in the viewer is a more than commendable achievement of direction.
Necessarily minimalist, though occasionally explosive, Jesse Eisenberg gives one of the year's most intriguing performances as the possible autistic Zuckerberg. Andrew Garfield gives a commendable performance himself as the much more personable Eduardo. The chemistry between the two is incredibly tense, perfectly reflecting the strained relationship that they portray on screen.
Fans of contemporary dramas or those interested in the origins of the omnipresent Facebook will find "The Social Network" a worthwhile cinematic experience.