The Social Network

Today I saw The Social Network, the film about the creation of Facebook starring Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, the Harvard student behind the worldwide phenomenon. Andrew Garfield plays Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg's friend who provided the initial capital to start the site when it was originally open only to Harvard student. Of the films that I have discussed on this site, this is the third one that Garfield has starred in, having performed in both Never Let Me Go and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. He is beginning to make quite a name for himself.

Back to this film. It has deservedly been given rave reviews. I accept that the facts have been played with rather loosely. But even if it does not stand as an historical record of the creation of Facebook, it is still a superbly crafted film. It probably has one of the best scripts written in recent years, and I doubt that many films of this length have squeezed in so much dialog. It seems to me that this film could have easily careened out of control, but the director, David Fincher, has managed to turn out a very coherent and tight film. This is all the more of an achievement given that the film is composed of flashbacks interspersed with scenes from depositions for the law suits that were spawned out of the entire endeavor. The integration of these two sequences is seamless, and I never felt lost going back and forth.

A lot of the talk has been about how much of an asshole Zuckerberg is portrayed as. I would say that Zuckerberger is portrayed as rather human. While he may be a bit insensitive, I am not sure that he acts that much worse than most other 20 year old's would in his situation. On the other hand, if I were the Winklevoss twins I think I would be more that a little upset. These are the two brothers who end up suing Zuckerberg alleging that he stole the idea for Facebook from them. I can only hope that they are not the same ninnies in real life, that are portrayed in the film. But they certainly add mirth to whole thing. My favorite scene is when the Winklevoss twins go to visit Mr. Tactless himself, then Harvard President Larry Summers.

While I liked just about everything about the film, I would have to say that the film could not have succeeded without Jesse Eisenberg's adept performance. Many actors can give sympathetic performance for sympathetic characters, but it takes a lot more skill when you have a less than sympathetic character to start with.

I had forgotten until I was watching the film that the outdoor scenes of Harvard were actually shot at Johns Hopkins. I remember now that some of the students were upset at the time of the filming. They found it a bit disrespectful to be made to play the stand in for Harvard. Regardless of that, I thought the University looked pretty good.

A couple clips: