Ahoy!
If Columbia Pictures was looking for a large and easily accessible target demographic they found it. Facebook’s membership is now well over four million people and counting; if Facebook were a country it would be the third largest country in the world. The point of this statement is to illustrate the fact that even if this Columbia Picture’s “The Social Network” sucked, it would still rake in more cash than most blockbusters could ever dream of. But the fact is, “The Social Network” didn’t suck, in fact it was anything but a disappointment. Apparently Facebook’s genius and intrigue translates well on the big screen, but enough said let’s get to reviewing!
Plot: The story begins in a small masschuets pub with Zuckerburg, played by Jesse Eisenburg, spilling his college fears out to Erica Albright, Rooney Mara, at a speed equitable to an auctioneer. This in media res beginning sets the tone for a fast paced drama leaving no time to catch your breath. To avoid mere plot summary and perhaps spoiling the movie for those who live on a different planet and have not seen it yet, I will simply comment on plot as a whole rather than specific plot action.
Overall I felt that Fischner handled the plot well, though he might have added some jazz for entertainment’s sake, like Zuckerburg’s obsession with final’s clubs, nevertheless the plot moved naturally. Relying on the audience’s fascinations with Zuckerburg’s idiosyncrasies, Fischner weaves a tale of friendship and betrayal, leaving one to ask is it even at all possible to have friendships in the realm of big business, a question whose answer remains up to the interpretation of audience. Fischner chose to focus on the effect of Facebook’s effect on Zuckerburg’s relationship, mainly his relationship with Eduardo Saverin, played by Andrew Garfield. Thus his motion picture has a wider appeal to audience who might have fallen behind when characters began discussing computer-based algorithms and advanced coding. Over all “The Social Network” is not a story of the genesis and maturation of Facebook, but rather the story of relationships and the effect success and greed in tandem has on those relationships. One is left with a sense of sadness at the movies conclusion when it appears that the man who created a website which allows one to have friendships with thousands of people, has lost the only one friendship he truly cared about. In this sense, “The Social Network” is a modern day Greek tragedy, accompanied by a Shakespeare-esque betrayal. Kudos to you Daniel Fischner, your film has reached a plateau that modern day film rarely reaches on the big screen, and for this I thank you.
Characters: Words cannot describe Jesse Eisenburg’s execution of his role as Mark Zuckerburg, and if they could they would contain semblances of the adjectives like phenomenal, stunning, and emotional. In “The Social Network” Eisenburg delivers a character as real as you and I, he is no Disney prince, nor an action hero, he is an awkward teenager whose insecurities and fears control his already dismal social skills. Zuckerburg is clearly a genius but as far as he depicted in the movie he is not the best of communicators and seems to exist a world of his own, ruled by selfish motives and an eternal quest for significance. Meanwhile Andrew Garfield’s character, Eduardo Saverin, is a somewhat more one-dimensional character but laudable nonetheless. Garfield plays the role well, his character is more practical than Zuckerburgs, but his talents as actor shine through despite his role’s limited flexibility. Eduardo Saverin is a likable person whose innocence and natural trust of Zuckerburg makes him nearly impossible to hate. He seeks only to do well but perhaps it is this naive quality that holds Facebook back and ultimately leads to his demise as an executive. The final character-actor I wish to discuss is Justin Timberlake’s character, Sean Parker, a greedy big shot that made his name for pioneering Napster and getting into high profile law suites. It is natural to hate Sean Parker, he is a cocky incarnation of greed, and one truly sees his evil when he plays Zuckerburg off of Saverin causing an emotional exchange between the two as the movie draws to a close. Timberlake’s role was hyped up to be Oscar worthy but I don’t find this to be the case, his performance is sufficient in that he plays the role well but unfortunately his character is incredibly one dimensional in that he possesses only an evil connotation. In sum expect to see Eisenberg giving an acceptance speech at the Oscars, Garfield will more than likely get a nomination, while Timberlake will receive praise for his role but the best he can hope for is a Golden Globe.
Setting: Harvard and Silicon Valley, the two main settings for this film hit home with the current trend in movies targeted at young adults. The setting of “The Social Network” is enough to make any college student drool with jealousy. What could be better than combining the academic prestige of the nations best Ivy League school along with the central hub of new and emerging technologies? Most stories would struggle to balance these settings, or even to incorporate them into the plot but luckily for Fischner these settings played a legitimate role in the actual creation of Facebook, and thusly these locations flow naturally with the script.
Themes: Friendship vs. Greed, Social Elitism, the desire for greatness among the brilliant.
Rating: 4.5/5
Written by: Yours Truly.....
Jake's Article on Facebook by Jake Skinner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
