TV Review: The Social Network

Despite an unlikeable protagonist, this is

one movie to Like.

It’s hardly surprising that Hollywood would want to grab a piece of the Facebook pie, given its influence, global domination and ubiquitous infiltration of our lives.

The Social Network takes us back to 2003, to a weathered dorm in hallowed Harvard, as a baby faced loner hopped up on Redbull feverishly hacks and codes to create the template for a phenomenon. A budding anarchist, the vision of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg, Zombieland) was to create a network of virtual social voyeurism.

"Wherever the truth lies, The Social Network is an innately compelling, beautifully crafted insight into the emergence of a global phenomenon."

His only real friend, Eduardo Saverin (a brilliant Andrew Garfield, Spiderman) finances the venture but in Facebook’s rise from college to global domination – apparently under the guidance of Napster founder, the nerd turned hedonistic hipster Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake bringing a swag of charisma) – Saverin alleges he was sidelined. He sued Zuckerberg as did Ivy Leaguers the Winklevoss twins (Mirror Mirror’s Armie Hammer and Gangster Squad’s Josh Pence assisted by some digital trickery) and their associate Divya Narendra (Max Minghella, Agora) who claimed Zuckerberg stole their idea.



Scientists would recoin social ineptitude as 'Dart in Mouth' disease 



But the truth proves to be a tricky mistress. West Wing scribe Aaron Sorkin weaves, Rashomon style, all three differing accounts into the film. He wants the audience to decide and debate just who is the truth teller mining a grand and rich vein of drama and pathos, a hotbed of conflict and betrayal. From the beginning, anyone remotely familiar with The West Wing will know they’re in Sorkin territory – namely, dialogue that’s thick and fast in a witty, frequently funny screenplay.

Director David Fincher (Fight Club), better known for his visual prowess and masterful storytelling than word-fests such as this, delivers all of the above with precision and evocatively summons the heady atmosphere of this recent time expertly.



Making billions was no laughing matter.



Portrayed as socially inept, ruthlessly ambitious and acid-tongued, Zuckerberg is hardly painted with a flattering brush, in fact it’s a pretty defamatory one; “You are going to go through the rest of your life thinking girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd,” says his soon to be ex-girlfriend (Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) in the film’s opening scene. “I want you to know it’s because you’re an asshole.”

Likeable he may not be but Zuckerberg, with much debt to Eisenberg’s tour de force performance, is compelling. Who’d have thought this indignant savant and financially disinterested social misfit would create the ultimate global social network? None the less, as presented here, the world’s youngest billionaire with hundreds of millions of friends and counting, has paid a high price for his success. At the film’s end, he’s a pitiful sight, a lone geek amongst a sea of detractors.

Wherever the truth lies, The Social Network is an innately compelling, beautifully crafted insight into the emergence of a global phenomenon and the disintegration of a rare friendship.

The Social Network screens on GO tonight at 8.50pm (AEST).

This review was originally published on Trespass Magazine, October 2010.