Text-speak as high drama

Rating: 9/10 (11 October 2010)

If the idea of the creation of a social networking site for college students yielding the world's youngest billionaire feels surreal, then the notion of a box office smash hit about a young man creating a website should prove even more indicative of the disorientation of the self- appointed "age of media". Nonetheless, David Fincher's The Social Network is happy to hit the ground running, apparently thinking of itself as a current day All the President's Men (or, as Fincher calls it, "the Citizen Kane of John Hughes movies") through being a suspenseful, youth-oriented movie providing a 'commentary on its time'. That the film's overall tone is far more snappy, cynical and noncommittal is as telling of "the times, a-changin'", as it is poignantly hard to tell whether Fincher's film fails to make any grander statements about its era or youth culture, or, ironically, through skirting the issue it perfectly represents them.
However, first and foremost, The Social Network functions as both drama and character study, detailing the now infamous story of 19 year old Mark Zuckerberg's spark of internet genius spiralling into a series of heated dramatic confrontations, lawsuits, explosions of stock and cementing a place in the cultural lexicon unlike any other, now known as the website/company/landmark Facebook. It is important to keep in mind that the film, while rooted in fact, is an unabashedly embellished and fictionalized telling predicated more on dramatic effect than factual realism (with some of the points of the story reeking more of obvious artifice than others – particularly the tragically ironic ending). However, if nothing else, there is no doubt that Fincher and screen writing Aaron Sorkin have created one of the more exciting films of college students speaking fervently over computers to hit cinemas in ages, as Sorkin's slickly polished script allows each line to crackle with the visceral immediacy of a fistfight.
In fact, the film functions so well as an impeccably oiled machine that it largely vetoes its own concerns about bias within the story (whether or not Zuckerberg is 'to blame' for allegedly stealing the idea of Facebook from a commission from fellow Harvard students, ruthlessly cutting his own best friend out of his company, troubling preconceptions of private and public spaces and so forth), treating everything, characterization included, as if subjective, circumstantial evidence at a trial, up for individual interpretation and reprocessing. Sorkin leaves it nearly impossible to 'root' for anyone or anything in particular, as the narrative feels locked into a consistent feeling of wheels inextricably in motion, beyond all notions of emotional investment and simply intended to be appraised and marvelled at. One could raise the concern of the film being too emotionally closed and distant (particularly ironic for a film about a social network predicated on "bringing people together"), were it not for the envisioned rebuttal, as if delivered in a rapid-fire, acerbic monotone by Jesse Eisenberg, that it simply has bigger fish to fry than satisfying trite, conventional emotional expectations. This is a film with a story to tell and a message about its times to convey (albeit in a somewhat muddled fashion), and, like a good piece of software, it refuses to compromise or slow down in the midst of accomplishing its core objectives.
Even Fincher's visual aesthetic captures this sense of sleek efficiency, his crisp, clean cinematography drinking in a depiction of Harvard neither excessively romanticized or banking on stereotypes. Channeling the driven anxiety of his antihero protagonist, Fincher shoots conversations and programming sessions like nail- biting stakeouts and college parties as if alienating action sequences, keeping the pace brisk and the tone ominous throughout. If nothing else, it is refreshing to see a film set at a college which doesn't come across like a beer commercial montage (although it is clear which beer brand gave Fincher the most funding), thankfully concentrating more on the story and characterizations as self-contained rather than wallowing in attempting to deliver another banal treatise on "this is what the point of college really is".
As characterizations go, it would be difficult to ask for a more grimly memorable one than Jesse Eisenberg's (undeniably artistic licence fuelled) take on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Muting his natural neurotic charisma through a steely deadpan and constant, unmoving half-frown, Eisenberg proves scarily good not only at inhabiting the piercing, controlled mania of Zuckerberg but also turning him into an oddly sympathetic, Machiavellian antihero, just as easy to respect and even like as to despise – it is easy to picture business majors worldwide taking notes. In contrast, Andrew Garfield brings a far more familiar emotional centre to the film as Zuckerberg's eventually jilted friend and business partner Eduardo Saverin. With a casual, likable aura and welcome strains of humour (one of the best scenes of the film is Saverin's agonized confession at not knowing how to change his own Facebook relationship status), Garfield makes Saverin's fade out from the Facebook all the more upsetting, providing intriguing counterpoint to Zuckerberg's snappy success. Finally, in a gleefully self-reflexive piece of casting, Justin Timberlake oozes glamour and sleaze as the manipulative creator of free music downloading site Napster, not chewing scenery so much as salivating upon it and providing a deliciously detestable face to corporate ambition.
While it may or may not have as much to say about the presence of technology in contemporary social relations, the blurring of the spheres of private and public and the tension between individual or collective success as it may or may not mean to, The Social Network provides an impressively assembled slice of fun and profundity, with all creative talents concerned functioning at the top of their games. Even (or perhaps especially) for those few still to be drawn in by the seductive allure of Facebook, Fincher's film still proves an intriguing and even exhilarating watch, and one of the best films of its year.
'Like'.
-8.5/10