What's On My Mind?

The Social Network

**** out of ****

Directed by: David Fincher

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer and Max Minghella

Running time: 121 minutes

People who label The Social Network as “the Facebook movie” miss the point. It’s called The Social Network because it charts the pursuit of a lonely student as he navigates toward the pantheon of social life, and not because Facebook, the phenomenon he would eventually create, is a social networking website.

Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) is a miserable Harvard undergraduate who desires to be recognized by the elite, all-exclusive clubs that may lead him to a more fulfilled life. To get attention, he launches a small website called “TheFacebook.”

What makes the film so darkly ironic is that Zuckerberg is anti-social. His repugnant personality and high-strung ego is nearly intolerable. In the first scene of the film, his girlfriend leaves him and he responds by insulting her to an online audience. Later, he cunningly manipulates his friends and associates, moving from a Harvard dweeb status to that of the world-wide-web prophet we know him as today.

It’s a riveting and supremely entertaining, but ultimately heartbreaking journey, chronicled with flair and wit by a dream team comprising of writer Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher.

The films jumps back and forth between the events surrounding the founding of Facebook and the subsequent legal proceedings. Zuckerberg is being sued by Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), his partner and best friend who was Facebook’s original CFO. He also must deal with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer), identical twins who proposed the idea of an online network for Harvard students to Zuckerberg mere months before Facebook launched.

The Social Network’s wry, rapid-fire script comes from Sorkin – the king of writing smart, cocksure characters rambling on in smart, cocksure manners – and it’s adapted from an equally breathless non-fiction bestseller, Ben Mezrich’s The Accidental Billionaires.

Like capable journalists, Sorkin and Fincher present a legal issue and then flash back to when the problem originated, letting the audience observe the scenario and figure out Zuckerberg’s level of guilt or innocence on their own.

Director David Fincher orchestrates the onscreen action with ease. By upping the ante on the characters' conflicts while Facebook catapults at a similarly rapid pace, the film builds toward a gut-wrenching climax.

As Zuckerberg, Eisenberg gives the finest performance any actor has given so far this year. It’s a cold, malignant character but Eisenberg instills him with such an inert pride and intelligence that we admire his genius even as we despise his actions. His misery and drive is reflected in Trent Reznor’s rumbling, moody, electric score.

You know a performance works when one can be fascinated with simply watching the character think. We're endlessly fascinated with what ideas, betrayals, defenses and calculations Zuckerberg can be pondering. His portrayal of a genius is simply genius.

As Saverin, the noble friend who regrettably got the short end of the site, Andrew Garfield is heartbreaking. You can think of him as the Leland to Eisenberg’s Kane. Justin Timberlake is also excellent as the shamelessly slick Sean Parker, the ex-founder of Napster who became Zuckerberg’s mentor.

Calling The Social Network “the Facebook movie” is an injustice. Few films cut to the bone of societal decay with such verve, wit and insight. How so? Zuckerberg is not just the mastermind behind the site that’s keeping us connected with our friends. In the process of getting Facebook the worldwide notoriety it has today, he distanced himself from every friend he had. Isn't this a dark irony that situates itself perfectly within our tech-savvy times?

This film is a blistering, sad and brilliant tragedy. How many “pokes” will it take to get the Academy to notice that?