Fincher applies his usual dark style to this intriguing and relevant story

Rating: 9/10 (13 June 2011)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
For such a young guy, I'm still worryingly over-whelmed by all the technology that controls the world these days...you seem to have mobile phones where people can watch films, download music, connect to the internet, music devices that can download tunes on the go, and doing the rounds on the internet itself at the moment, 'social networking' sites seem to be all the rage, mainly Twitter, and, arguably the most popular, Facebook. I fail to see the big rage, to be honest, intermittently informing other users of the most mundane aspects of your day, trying to out compete others with how many messages you can send at one time and so forth. But still, FB has millions of followers worldwide, and has made it's founder Mark Zuckerberg the youngest millionaire on the planet. This film charts how Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg, used his social alienation and nerdishness to set him on his way to founding Facebook, before it's money making potential became evident and he began to turn on his friends as he became more ruthless making his way to the top (or so the film claims.)
At first glance, the material doesn't feel suited to the dark content director David Fincher is more renowned for and so he's an odd choice to be at the helm here. Still, his heavy, brooding style is felt all over the picture, and adds it a layer of authenticism and style that it otherwise wouldn't have had. In the lead role, Eisenberg (weird his and his character's name both end in berg!) brings the character of Zuckerberg to life quite well, showing an already tactless and socially awkward person descend further into a ruthless, predatory and traitorius monster (although this is a dubious depiction by the film.) It is curious that such a socially challenged guy could be responsible for creating the biggest social networking site in the world. And it has to be said, praise is owed to Justin Timberlake in a supporting role, showing more range and depth than could be reasonably expected of an ex member of N Sync.
This is an unusual but timely and relevant piece for a director like Fincher to take on, and, applying his usual cold, dark style, he has achieved quite an admirable result indeed. ****