Socially Awesome

Rating: 9/10 (27 February 2011)

I went into this movie knowing only that it was about the creation of Facebook and was apparently incredible (I believe Rolling Stones rated it as the #1 movie of 2010, beating movies such as True Grit and The King's Speech.) That being said, I began it assuming that it was a good movie--for it's genre--but that it wouldn't be too interesting to me--being a biography (a genre which I am not a huge fan of.) I couldn't have been further from the truth.
Of course, it WAS a remarkable movie--but not just for its genre, but by any standard. It is probably the only movie I've seen that is astoundingly dialog heavy--so dialog heavy that other movies would capsize--but remains interesting and entertaining. Almost all the characters have at least half their dialog infused with some subtle sarcasm, but not so much that it keeps you from connecting emotionally with them. Rather, I feel it helps you relate to them more and makes them more real.
I have a special shout-out to co-stars Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg. Andrew Garfield does an amazing job as Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook and former CFO. His character is easily the one I personally sympathized with the most, but it wasn't so over the top that it was all pity, no play. Rather, he was very believable as a nice, young man who faces a tragic, unfortunate hardship when he is blotted out of the Facebook company and his friendship with Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) disappears. I praise Garfield's talents and I can't wait to see him in "The Amazing Spider-Man." As for Jesse Eisenberg, I was almost just as astounded with his performance as I was with Andrew Garfield's. The only other movie of his that I have seen is Zombieland, but looking into his acting portfolio, it appeared to me that most of his movies appeared to be similar: very fun, but simplistic. That being said, I had previously feared that his career would be defined as a "wannabe Michael Cerna." This movie obliterated my fear of such a fate. His character, Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, is a socially awkward, heavily sarcastic Harvard undergraduate.
Now, I may have lost you at "socially awkward," and you are questioning my logic, with the idea of this character being different for the actor and being socially awkward appearing to be extremely contradictory. But let me assure you, this is a completely different "socially awkward" character than what you may think. Unlike the socially awkward character he played in Zombieland, when I say "socially awkward," I'm just putting it delicately. A better description would be "an asshole who is so overwhelmed with his intelligence that he's terrible with casual conversation or courtesies," but I thought this would be rather harsh to say right off the bat.
Having said that, his character was still one you could sympathize with, but not one that is above reproach or one that can often second-guess morally and logically. In any case, I was blown away by how different Jesse Eisenberg was from how I expected it. When I watched The Social Network, I didn't see Jesse Eisenberg playing Mark Zuckerberg, I saw Mark Zuckerberg caught on tape. And for that, my hat's off to him.
As for the story, I would really say you'd have to see it for yourself to understand what makes it incredible. I will say this: the movie gives itself a reason to tell the story of Facebook's origins by flashing between Zuckerberg and all others involved being in his two different court cases--one against the Winklevoss brothers and one against Eduardo. I thought the concept was clever and gave the movie more of a purpose than just "ever wonder how Facebook started? Well..." All in all, The Social Network is well worth the time of any serious movie-watcher, and I know this critic will gladly watch it again in the future. I'll facebook you later!