Extremely entertaining

Rating: 8/10 (3 October 2010)

This one had a lot of things going against it, at least for me. First, I generally don't like David Fincher, with the one exception of Zodiac. Second, I also don't like Aaron Sorkin. I'm not extremely familiar with his work, but I used to watch his show Sports Night and it's pretty freaking difficult to forgive him for that pile of crap. Third, I could not care less about Facebook. It just seems incredibly unnecessary, I don't like people I barely know or haven't known in a long while having any knowledge of my current comings and goings, and, heck, IMDb takes up so much time of my life why would I really want another bit of the internet biting off chunks of my life? Of course, this movie is solely about the founding of Facebook and really does little or nothing with the way Facebook has affected the concept of friendship in the 21st Century (although, honestly, that sounds like an interesting film itself, but I probably wouldn't watch it because it would make me feel so out of the loop!). And it is a fairly interesting story. As for Fincher, that one exception of Zodiac is the reason I will probably see anything he makes in the future (some may wait for video, however). Plus, this one seemed like it would be tapping into Fincher's Zodiac talent, what with its being a complex true story. His talent is in his attention to details, and it serves him well here. Sorkin is a little harder to get over, and during the opening sequence, in which Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) has a quick-witted conversation/argument with his date (Rooney Mara), I was very afraid that I was going to be beat down by his overly clever dialogue. Fortunately, that scene is the worst in the movie, and, while occasionally the dialogue feels overwrought, generally it's smart without showing off. So, with all of the challenges conquered, how did it fare for me? Very well, in fact. It's far from the greatest film ever made, which is what the insane buzz was saying beforehand, but it's very entertaining. Really, the story shouldn't be anywhere near as entertaining as the film turns out to be. When I went over it again in my head, it felt fairly shallow. But it rushes along with such energy that it swept me along with it like an ocean wave. Fincher does a great job, and he's helped exponentially by the editing (Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall) and the score (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). I really want the score to win the Oscar, if for no other reason than to give Trent Reznor an Oscar. My 17 year old self would be ecstatic at that proposition. The cast is also excellent. I think they work best as an ensemble, but, yes, Eisenberg is wonderful, Andrew Garfield shows off his star potential in his biggest role yet and Justin Timberlake is amazing as the guy who created Napster. It may not be a masterpiece, but it's definitely one of the best films of 2010.