Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here.
I saw the Aaron Sorkin-written, David Fincher-directed THE SOCIAL NETWORK two days in a row, and I've held off writing about it because I wanted to get my thoughts exactly right. I'm not sure I did, but this is what I've got. With three months left in the year, The Social Network is the best film I've seen so far in 2010. Is that clear enough for you? If it's at all possible, don't go into THE SOCIAL NETWORK thinking you're going to discover "the truth" about the founding and possible idea stealing being Facebook, the online phenom that has introduced a slew of new lingo to the English language and has made it possible for every single friend I had in high school to find me within one month of me joining a couple years back. Thanks, Mark Zuckerberg.
The first time I saw the film was at a 10am screening in Chicago. I'll admit I was tired when I sat down, but after the opening sequence in which Harvard undergrad Zuckerberg (played with astonishing energy and inflated self worth by Jesse Eisenberg of ADVENTURELAND, ZOMBIELAND, and THE SQUID AND THE WHALE) essentially allows his arrogance end a relationship with one of the few women (Rooney Mara, soon to be Fincher's Lisbeth Salander in the U.S. version of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO) on campus who will actually date him. The scene is just two people sitting at a table in a bar talking, but the words are flying in a verbal fencing match that is won by Zuckerberg but the price is the death of his relationship. She assures him, she's isn't leaving him because he's a geek but because he's an asshole. My reaction after the sequence: "Shit, that's a lot of words." Sorkin cleverly bookends THE SOCIAL NETWORK with women that Zuckerberg clearly has feelings for (the other is played by Rashida Jones, in a role that's a bit of a mystery) defining his asshole behavior, and it's as strong an argument for his drive at creating Facebook as any I've heard.
But Sorkin, Fincher, and company are actually telling slightly different versions of the same stories as seen from the men who lived the moments. Through two depositions, we get versions of how Zuckerberg came up with the idea of a way of linking people that replicated the college experience. In the end, his goal appeared to be to level the playing field, eliminating social cliques, secret societies, and invite-only fraternities and clubs that he was never invited to join. Whether this is true or not, I don't know or care. But Eisenberg makes me believe it is the motivation, and every characters' motivations are a huge part of THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Why were they friends with Mark? Why are they suing him? What do they get out of knowing him? What do they represent to Mark?
It's tough to see the glue that binds Zuckerberg and his best (possibly only true) friend and business partner Eduardo Saverin (played as the heart and soul of this movie by Andrew Garfield) come undone; Saverin also happens to be one of the people suing him later in the timeline. Zuckerberg never misses an opportunity to belittle Saverin's accomplishments, but he remains loyal as the money man in the early part of the business, known at the time as The Facebook. The plaintiffs in the other lawsuit are twin Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer, who has paved the way for his eventual stardom with this movie) and their friend Divya Narendra (Max Minghella), all of whom came up with an early template for Facebook geared just at Harvard students. Their arguments are sound, but since Mark didn't steal code and quickly branched out beyond Harvard (to other schools and then the world), he makes the most compelling statement in his own defense: "If you invented Facebook, you would have invented Facebook."
Zuckerberg's world view grows exponentially when he meets Napster founder Sean Parker, played by Justin Timberlake in the best acting work of his career by far. Parker is sharp as a knife and he comes across as just as dangerous, a slick idea man who dabbles in drugs and seems like more of a facilitator than an actual worker bee or creative type. Timberlake is incredible here, truly, and he handles Sorkin's dense words like he was born to do the job. In fact, all of the actors in THE SOCIAL NETWORK are perfect, with no weak links in the bunch. Anyone who has had issues with Eisenberg in the past, giving him the Michael Cera rap of playing the same character in every movie can eat my ass with how wrong the are, and how definitively he establishes his characterization of Zuckerberg in the first few minutes.
I have the least to say about Fincher's direction, because he does very little visually to overpower the poetry Sorkin has given us in his screenplay. Fincher has proven time and again that he knows how to create unforgettable images for us to carry with us, often into our nightmares. But with THE SOCIAL NETWORK, he stands back and gives us a rare look at low-key Fincher. There's a subtle color scheme going on, and I love the way he finds incredibly interesting ways to show us people talking--seriously 90 percent of this movie is just talking, with a bit of rowing thrown in (the Winklevoss twins were on a crew team and went on to the Olympics). But Sorkin's words feel like action and violence and good and evil mixing it up. There's no possible way his screenplay isn't winning an Oscar. THE SOCIAL NETWORK is a celebration of smart language and the art of conversation, and every film lover should celebrate right along with it.
I'm at the tail end of seeing a couple dozen genre films at Fantastic Fest, an event that reinforces my belief in violence, blood, gore, action, martial arts, the grotesque, the inappropriate, and the hilarious. But THE SOCIAL NETWORK doesn't have any of that, and I still found dozens of reason to love it immensely. The writing, the acting, and the steely visual style that David Fincher has been perfecting for most of his career and has found a completely new and original way of applying it to a film that, at first, may not seem like a perfect match for his abilities. But Fincher loves a challenge, and with THE SOCIAL NETWORK, he set himself the goal of providing a stunning backdrop for his note-perfect actor to deliver fully loaded dialogue. It sounds simple, but it isn't. And it's the reason this film triumphs. I'm ready to see it again right now.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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