The Social Network

Although he created Facebook as a means for people to communicate with one another, The Social Network gave me the impression that the site's creator, Mark Zuckerberg, was more interested in exclusion than inclusion. In the film, he's obsessed with the private institutions found throughout the Harvard college campus, and seems to want to give that exclusivity to the public masses. Everyone can enjoy inviting select few into your inner circle, while rejecting other requests in your own private on line social club.

In David Fincher's thrilling and absorbing new drama, Zuckerberg is portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg, an actor who has excelled in low key comic roles in the past, but here gets role of a lifetime. He's ruthless, he's self-isolated, and every word falls out of his mouth as fast as his brain can process them. We notice this right in the opening scene, where he's in a bar, talking to his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara). He's angry over being rejected by one of Harvard's clubs, and his anger spills over into a rambling and jumbled rant. We can sense that Erica has been through similar nights with him. We can also sense this is the last time she's willing to put up with it. She breaks up with him, but he doesn't quite seem to be able to process it, and just keeps on talking. She calls him an 'asshole" and storms out of the bar.

Angry and drunk, Mark returns to his dorm, and posts some nasty blog entries about Erica out of spite. Most men would stop there, but Mark takes it one step further by developing a website called Facemash, where fellow students can look at paired photographs of female coeds and vote on which one is hotter. The stunt makes him a celebrity on the campus - So many log onto his site that night that it crashes Harvard's server. He also gets academic suspension for it. These opening moments tell us a lot about Mark Zuckerberg. He's spiteful, but brilliant. He's a closed-off whiz kid geek who appears to always be on the outside of every situation, but what makes him dangerous is that he has inside knowledge of everyone around him. In his performance, Eisenberg portrays him as the ultimate genius antihero - He doesn't care what people think of him, just as long as they acknowledge that he's better than them.

The Social Network tells the story of how Zuckerberg created Facebook, built it into a media empire, and in the process basically lost and/or screwed over everyone who helped get him to where he is. The screenplay by Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson's War) recounts this information mainly through flashback, and divides it up with a pair of deposition hearings in which Mark faces the people who once trusted him, and are now threatening to sue him. This approach may sound fragmented, the narrative jumping back and forth between different points and times in Zuckerberg's life, but Sorkin makes it work with his whip-smart dialogue and a mastery of juggling multiple storylines with little effort. Through the flashbacks, we meet the different people who played a part (either willingly or not) in the creation of Facebook.

Chief amongst those people are twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer in a dual role), who approach Mark with an idea for a site that will allow Harvard students to communicate with one another exclusively on line. Mark agrees, then intentionally avoids the brothers, as he goes about designing his own version, which becomes Facebook. The Winklevoss brothers see his actions as theft. Mark sees it as two guys who had everything handed to them all their life finally getting a taste of disappointment. There's also Mark's partner, co-founder of Facebook, and only friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). He stands by Mark through just about everything, only to find his part in the company greatly reduced to the point that he barely exists, when Mark is taken in by and begins following the advice of the hotshot young Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), best known for creating music downloading service, Napster.

Why did he do these things, and betray his closest friend? The simple answer is to get ahead, but there seems to be an undercurrent of democracy to Mark's vision. When he expands upon the idea that the Winklevoss brothers have, he expands upon it, and makes it more open to the public. This is a complex morality tale. Yes, much of Mark Zuckerberg's actions could be and should be labeled as underhanded, but he is also a mesmerizing character. As awkward and isolated as he is, there is some kind of genius that draws people to his work and ideas, and it comes through in the film. There are a number of winning and layered performances on display here, not just from Eisenberg, but also from Timberlake and Garfield. The film is also smart in the way that it balances technical jargon with human emotion, as well as plenty of corporate backstabbing and behind the scenes wheeling and dealings, without sinking into turgid melodrama.

In the end, The Social Network seems to say that as much as the Internet can open us up to other people, we are still who we are in the end. For all his success and fortune, one of the last shots of the film is of Zuckerberg sitting alone in front of a computer, hoping that someone will talk to him. Not just anyone, actually, but a special someone from his past. We can sense the loneliness, and in a way, his desperation. Whether or not the film is entirely factual I do not know. What I do know is that this film is a remarkable achievement of writing, acting, music score (provided by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) and storytelling. It's one of 2010's best films.

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