Idiot savant

Rating: 10/10 (10 November 2010)

Took a chance seeing this movie, as a film about the founder of Facebook didn't really sound that interesting. It's gotten good reviews though, so I took a punt watching it. A good thing too, as this is a great movie. Many times I found it laugh out loud funny. Some of the reviews that I had come across mentioned Justin Timberlake. Not into the top 40 music scene, so I was wondering about which person he played...and made a wrong provisional guess in the process. Timberlake does make a great entrance though.
What's it about? It's the story of Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg), a talented university student who studies computers/I.T. If you don't know the name (like me), you'd know of his most famous creation...the social network website "Facebook". It's this website which provides the drama for the movie. Who really claims ownership of it or the idea for it? We get to see the contenders via flashbacks, prompted by legal arguments between Zuckerberg's lawyers and those attempting to sue him for recognition for their contribution to the site/concept, namely the Winklevi and one time friend Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garfield).
What's to like about the movie? Even if the movie was intended be a demolition job on Zuckerberg (which I doubt), I like the way that you see enough of the context of events to even have sympathy for him or at least see where he was coming from when he does the things he does.
Jesse Eisenberg gives a sterling performance as Zuckerberg. Only after seeing this movie did I see Eisenberg for real (in the final episode of "The virtual revolution", namely "Homo interneticus?"...good docu series on the web...it's history and impact). Not sure that Eisenberg gives a mimicking performance, but that's not the point...if you want reality you'd read a scholarly article, right? In any case, I suppose Eisenberg would be a worthy winner of an Academy Award for Best Actor.
To my "Idiot savant" remark in the header...that's how Zuckerberg comes across to me. No doubt he is very knowledgeable and highly intelligent, but sheesh, his Emotional IQ is at "idiot" level. One illustration of that is in the opening sequence of the movie, where he is on a date with a student he likes (Erica Albright, played by Rooney Mara). In a way, this scene is the entire movie writ small...it's what the entire movie/life is all about, it's contended ("synedoche"...thanks to a movie by that name which I haven't seen, I now know about this word!). There's a 'cute' scene to end the movie...probably artistic licence taken there, but it bookends nicely with the opening scene.
Another example of Zuckerberg's idiocy...there's a perplexing scene where Zuckerberg does what Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) tells him to do. Zuckerberg would have an IQ twice that of two people of average intelligence (presumably), but you can't help but think "What the hell where you thinking?". Not sure if that even was based on fact, but if it was, it paints Zuckerberg as someone who might just have jumped off a garage roof with a towel around his neck pretending to be Superman. It's that idiotic. Zuckerberg as a genius man child.
One thing about Eisenberg's portrayal is that he kind of struck me as a Hannibal Lecter type figure...I mean, it wouldn't have surprised me if Zuckerberg was in fact a psychopath about to embark on a rampage. I'd modify my initial impression of him now to "idiot savant psycohpath man child"! Here's the savant part...Eisenberg's Zuckerberg is like a robot...he seems to pull out zingers out of nowhere...like he's computed the optimal bon mot for any given circumstance. These are laugh out loud funny at times (in a "Humans are the funniest animals" kind of way). Here's the weird thing...he comes out with this kind of stuff, but it seems like he doesn't get his own jokes. I don't know of anyone at all like that. Apart from Steven Wright. But he really is a robot. Who writes jokes for calendars. Back to Zuckerberg...he's metaphorically lobbing hand grenades left, right and centre, oblivious to the havoc he is causing, because his mind his multi-tasking, and his attention is always on something more important to him.
Finally, as far as the resolution goes...interesting. Since I'm not trained as a lawyer and you don't really hear this stuff in a legal manner, I have to admit a degree of surprise with the outcome, as far as the Winklevi are concerned (that amusing term is used by Zuckerberg in the movie). Even though the genius that is attibuted to Zuckerberg in the movie seems to rest on him knowing abstract geeky stuff, to me it seemed to rest on just thinking bigger than those around him. But the rationale for the outcome is suggested by the female lawyer at the end. The outcome for Eduardo Saverin is undisclosed, like in reality. I sort of get why Zuckerberg may have done what he did...as in striking a bad deal with him, perhaps. A more lawyerly account might have made me disregard that. I certainly hope that he surpassed the Winklevi...I'm not sure that they really deserved anything.
As a morality tale, this has some subtle shades of grey in it, which is what makes it a superior movie...I would have liked to have been on a jury to hear this case, but it neve got that far...and I'm Australian...so would have had to change my nationality to do so. Anyway...
If you like this movie, I also recommend: "The pirates of Silicon Valley". It's another fact based drama on I.T. legends. Saw it on TV some years ago. Bill Gates is covered. I found myself to have more sympathy for Zuckerberg than Gates, who doesn't seem to have the same aspersions cast on him in reality as Zuckerberg does in this movie. A pity.