The Social Network - Cinema Review

'Fincher isn't content just with pointing out that the developer is a God in one world and a nobody in the other, rather he moves on to question the validity of the worlds in question'

You would struggle to get me more excited about an upcoming film than to compare it to All The President's Men, claiming that, like Alan Pakula's 1976 film, it captures a social zeitgeist unique in its individuality. Tell me that David Fincher's directing it and you've got a sure-fire customer. After Scott Foundas' early review which said just those things, anticipation for The Social Network reached stratospheric levels.

It's testament to Foundas that the comparison between the two films is a difficult one to beat. After two hours in the company of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and assorted friends, colleagues and lawyers, I had been hooked by David Fincher's slow reveal and examination of events, just as Pakula does with his own expose. Fincher performs a balancing act of unique proportions as the vindictive and egotistic Zuckerberg is juxtaposed against friend Eduardo Severin (Andrew Garfield), wronged ex-girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) and the possibly-even-more-depraved-than-he-is, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). Like any film where the focus is placed on the 'villain' it's important that you really dislike Zuckerberg. And you do really dislike Zuckerberg.

The performance that Eisenberg gives is completely unexpected. A world away from the flimsy comedy of Zombieland or even his dorky student in the recent Solitary Man, his portrayal is a confident and mature stab at an over-confident and immature young man whose esoteric programming genius gives him little advantage in social situations.

That the film is as much about Zuckerberg's irony-laced social failings when compared to his success in virtual society is well documented but there's something more here too. Fincher isn't content just with pointing out that the developer is a God in one world and a nobody in the other, rather he moves on to question the validity of the worlds in question: he might call Facebook The Social Network but how 'social' (or more accurately, sociable) is it really? Is proclaiming that your relationship status is 'single' on Facebook more or less valid than doing it in the real world? Is there a difference? The second of those questions is only marginally let down by the fact that it hangs on Brenda Song's considerably under-developed Christy but to anyone familiar with the site it will no doubt ring unnervingly true.

Perhaps frustratingly, the director chooses not to draw many conclusions to his questions and with the final third of the film taking some wrong turns, this became the second Fincher film in three years that I've walked out of surrounded by an audience who were near-universally decrying the ending. Aaron Sorkin's script is an excellent example of clever writing which doesn't treat the audience as a bunch of idiots but his use of the Marylin (Rashida Jones) character towards the end started to reek of un-needed exposition and the fact that the Facebook story hasn't reached its real life conclusion yet is a stumbling block. Despite this though, The Social Network stands up as the zeitgeist capturing film that Foundas proclaimed it to be and whilst two hours in Zuckerberg's company is never entirely pleasant, it is most certainly compelling.

Look further...

'[Fincher] takes Zuckerberg and portrays him as one of his classic protagonists: a borderline sociopath, brilliant and fragile' - Lost In The Multiplex, 9/10