Strong drama with sharp Fincher and Eisenberg

Rating: 8/10 (24 October 2010)

Based on the novel by Ben Mezrich and the real life occurrences of the foundation of Facebook, David Fincher's critically acclaimed film markets the trials and tribulations of the world's biggest social network site.
The film revolves around how Mark Zuckerberg, played brilliantly by Jesse Eisenberg, who is a social misfit and yet a technical mastermind.
After berating his girlfriend and getting himself dumped, he takes his fury out by posting blogs and creating a website which matches women from surrounding colleges and naming it Facemash, allowing users to vote who is more attractive out of their classmates.
An uproar ensues and soon Zuckerberg is targeted by Harvard students to design a website from them.
In and amongst all the animosity of court cases, social and friend rivalry we see a great story jump from past to present in a calm fashion that grabs you full attention, thanks to the styling of director David Fincher and the unfazed exploits of Zuckerberg's actions against anyone.
Whether you love Facebook or hate it, there is minimal doubt that how it all came about from a bitter spat with a partner is intriguing. The weaving legal terms are fascinating and the amount of detail encoded about the formulas and constructing is great.
Eisenberg after his impressive comedy outings in Zombieland etc has created the perfect enemy that you can somehow route for whilst being intellectually unmatched throughout. Despite the serious predicament he finds himself in the character can often come up trumps with a killer comedy line.
One very good note to take from this film is that Andrew Garfield will be a great Spider-man. Playing Zuckerberg's best friend Eduardo, he is slick, funny and carries the burden of being the victim in the bigger scenes, the final showdown at the Facebook office is a very strong scene.
The film has a few flaws. For one a showdown between Eduardo and girlfriend Christy about why he hasn't changed his Facebook status to 'in a relationship' makes the whole principle of the site seem ridiculous. Justin Timberlake is hard to take seriously and occasionally there are lapses in repetition, as if the same thing had been discussed before.
Nevertheless this has proved a special surprise.
This is a good strong drama with great leading performances and an unmatched drama by David Fincher to create possible Oscar nominations for next year.
Worth checking out.