Incredibly over-hyped

Rating: 3/10 (14 November 2010)

The Social Network is contrived, artificial and overlong, but it didn't have to be. There were the makings of a really absorbing movie, using the very timeless themes of betrayal and greed; however, those opportunities were repeatedly squandered. The dialogue was characteristic of Sorkin, with the actors continually speaking over each other, spouting bon mots that rang hollow because they had no time to register. When a simple statement with a few words would suffice and be much more powerful, Sorkin stuffed in multiple sentences that rendered the scene lifeless. Sometimes silence is the most powerful indicator of feeling.
The most glaring problem is the absolute implausibility of one of the central motifs of the story, which is Zuckerberg's obsession with final clubs. The references are hilariously outdated and irrelevant, coming from right out of the 60s. Does anyone really believe that Zuckerberg would screw his co-founder out of his share of the company because of resentment over the fact that Eduardo was chosen for one of the clubs? Whatever happened to plain and simple greed? Surely there was a more interesting and more credible way to explain why the partnership went sour. The filmmakers should have found it.
It has been well publicized that the film is largely fictional; most of the machinations described in the film never happened or didn't happen as portrayed. Both the director and screenwriter have admitted that they don't know much about Facebook or see the point of it. Sorkin himself also said that he was willing to sacrifice the truth for a good story. That isn't necessarily a problem; if the storytelling is solid, the stretching of facts can be overlooked. In this case, the plot is overwrought and not believable, making the glaring plot holes and lack of veracity prominent.
A few more quibbles: the soundtrack was incredibly intrusive, the portrayal of all the women in the film was shameful and sexist, and the vision of life at Harvard was inauthentic. I thought the main actors did a fair job with the material they were given, especially Jesse Eisenberg, who managed to give Zuckerberg more than one dimension. But the movie could have been so much more, which makes the final result really depressing.