Getting An Inside Look At Facebook

As I left the theater after watching The Social Newtwork, I realized my phone was already opened to the same website the movie was about: facebook.

500 million people use Facebook in the entire world. It takes about five minutes to set up an account. It’s an effortless way to communicate with your friends over the internet. People would rarely give a second thought to its creation, because it’s not a very controversial idea.

But from its humble beginnings in a Harvard dorm room, to its eventual travel to the shiny offices of Silicon Valley, Facebook was smeared with internal controversey wherever it went. The film tells the story from its very beginning, when future creator Mark Zuckerberg is creating a website that compares female students at Harvard based on their looks. The website is met with instant popularity, and begins to open many doors for Zuckerberg.

And as the success of Facebook became the most important thing in Mark’s life, the relationships in his life became strained, eventually leaving the world’s most popular man completely friendless and in the middle of two lawsuits: one against his best friend and co-founder, and the other between three other Harvard students who claim that he stole the idea from them.

Screenwriter David Sorkin, known best for his television show The West Wing, adapted his screenplay from a nonfiction book called The Accidental Billionaires. Sorkin, rather than insert a bias into his film, presents the story from the viewpoints of the three parties involved in the two lawsuits. As the audience, we choose which one is in the right and which is in the wrong.

As a whole, this movie has a pretty young cast for garnering such prestigious praise. Eisenberg hit the mainstream screens last year in movies like Adventureland and Zombieland, playing similar characters of nerdy stature and lacking in emotion. This is why I am staying reserved in praising his performance too much. He did an excellent job doing the role that he normally does, only slightly more mean this time. And even though the filmmakers say their goal was to write the film in an unbiased manner, Eisenberg’s portrayal of Zuckerberg is that of a sociopathic young man hell bent on success -— in short, not a positive look at the genius behind Facebook. The rest of the young talent is excellent, especially from Andrew Garfield, who plays Eduardo Saverin — the co-founder of Facebook — who plays a sympathetic role of best friend tossed aside on the road to success.

Fincher’s subtle artistic touch makes the film seem extremely realistic, but stylized enough that the movie doesn’t seem just like a documentary. The Social Network is not a feel-good movie in any sense, but its an extremely interesting inside look at the dark past one of the most popular websites in the world.