Genre: Drama
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield, Joseph Mazzello, Rashida Jones, Max Minghella, Rooney Mara, Dakota Johnson, Brenda Song, Armie Hammer, Josh Pence, Malese Jow
RunTime:2 hrs
Released By: Columbia TriStar
Rating: NC-16 (Drug Use and Some Sexual References)
Official Website: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thesocialnetwork/

Opening Day: 28 October 2010

Synopsis:

On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history... but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. From director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin comes The Social Network, a film that proves you don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, and Cean Chaffin and based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich.

Movie Review:

If you were this columnist’s webmaster, you won’t be too happy to hear this confession. Instead of focusing on churning out a movie review, he would be switching between windows to check on the latest news feed on Facebook. How that affects work efficiency is one thing, the other aspect of this six year old social network service is how it has taken over our lives.

The last he checked (after writing the above paragraph, nonetheless), this single and January born (hunt down his Facebook account to verify these facts) columnist has 449 friends. Why the constant need to refresh the Facebook page? Mark Zuckerberg would understand – at least that’s how the Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher’s movie is portrayed.

Adapted from Ben Mezrich’s non fiction book The Accidental Billionaires, this drama chronicles the founding of the now famous social networking website. Some seven years ago, no one would have heard of Facebook until Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin and their team of technical experts came together to create this phenomenal online tool. The story also involves a certain Napster co founder Sean Parker and a pair of Harvard twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The 121 minute movie tells the story of how friendships were formed, as well as how enemies were made in the founding of what may possibly be the most culturally and socially important networking website of our time.

Given the subject matter, it is difficult not to dwell on the actualities of what happened in real life, but Fincher (Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) knows too well that he is making a movie for the masses. Thus, the resultant work is a crisply intelligent and emotionally engaging movie that further marks his place in the industry as an acclaimed filmmaker.

While it is important to note that none of the Facebook staff or employees was involved in the making of this movie, you have to give credit to Aaron Sorkin’s sharply written screenplay because it manages to keep the pace of the talky movie going. Highly celebrated musicians Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have also come together to compose a very hip electronica driven score to accompany the film. The effective cinematography and editing by Jeff Cronenweth, Kirk Baxtyer and Angus Wall also complement Fincher’s clear cut filmmaking style. The flashbacks are well executed, and humour is evident in the characters’ dialogues. Most importantly, there is emotional punch, as exemplified by the human connections and relationships which are built and torn apart in the story. Ultimately, it is a tale about how a man who manages to connect the world is a loner desperately trying to find his own connection.

Fincher’s fresh cast of actors do a fine job of depicting their characters too. Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland) brings out the nonchalant brilliance of Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) exudes the will power of Eduardo Saverin, and Justin Timberlake (Shrek Foerver After) personifies Sean Parker’s slimy entrepreneurial spirit. They are supported by other fine actors like Brenda Song, Arnie Hammer, Max Minghella and Rooney Mara.

This is clearly an ambitious project, considering how worldwide viewers (the 500 million Facebook users included) will be anticipating the story of Facebook. Like the website itself, the movie is culturally and socially significant in contemporary cinema –be ready to see the movie acknowledged for a job well done during awards season.

While this columnist is still at it, he would recommend you to life MovieXclusive.com on Facebook, and if you must know, as he ends off this review, he has just added one more friend to his page, making his total number of friends to 450.

Now, it’s time to upload those photos he took at the party last night.

Movie Rating:



(A culturally and socially important piece of work that is enthralling from beginning to end)

Reviewed by John Li