The Social Network Review

Imagine a world without Facebook. It’s a premise that has set the standard for just about every review for The Social Network but it does create an interesting proposition.

The site, now in it’s eighth year of life has spawned a new medium of social interaction, a new ground to debate upon and has no doubt, brought you closer to people who you would have probably said farewell to at the end of High School.

But how did it all begin I hear you ask? This is where David Fincher's tale of betrayal, arrogance and hacking drinking games comes in with The Social Network. Based on the book The Accidental Billionaires, the film shows us how Facebook came to be and how you may never want to hear the term poking again.

The film’s framing device plays between two court cases. The accused is Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg; a borderline stereotype of Aspergers Syndrome who speaks a million words a minute and only finds consultation when using source coding.

In one case is Mark’s apparent best friend Eduardo played by future Spider-Man Andrew Garfield. Eduardo is by far the most likeable character in the entire film (which might come down to him being the only person to give information regarding the outcome of the suits) but doesn’t have any real negative traits.

The other case has our other two main characters, twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss played by Armie Hammer (yep, the same actor). The two are behemoths who enjoy rowing and are far too used to having things go their way. Unlike stereotypical twins who are basically the same person, the twins have different opinions but a common goal of acknowledgement, one that Zuckerberg can provide them with but ultimately, doesn’t.

To set-up the story, in a nutshell; Zuckerberg is dumped by his girlfriend and crashes the Harvard servers by creating a website that asks which campus students are better looking than their peers. The twins, impressed by Zuckerberg’s skills, enlist him of their venture to create a Harvard only site for connecting students called Harvard Connect.

From here, the film takes many twists and turns as theFacebook (as it’s then known) takes off and quickly becomes an online phenomenon that turns co-workers into advisories and friends into enemies (as demonstrated by the quick cuts to the court scenes which shows how damaged the relationship between the characters is).

So yeah, a rip roaring tale about the joys of hacking, website building and dialogue so fast, you’ll wonder if the editors accidentally had the entire film on fast forward. It’s not exactly your stereotypical summer blockbuster and the only special effects seem to be making the computers look like actual computers running regular software.

But beneath the premise which only a small handful of people would be interested in a
character drama more in the mould of Wall Street than computer hacker films like…well, Hackers.

It’s a film built purely on exchanges. You can guess the outcome because Facebook is
still going strong and Zuckerberg occasionally shows his real life persona. What we do get however is a growing trend escalation. As the film continues from the first, brilliant ten minutes, the website grows quickly, finding our characters desperately trying to adapt to the changes that are spiralling out of control.

All goes well to begin with but when Napster founder Sean Parker, played ironicallyby Justin Timberlake enters the fray, everything falls apart and yet, gets better. By the end, we’re left with a film where two wronged but undeserving brutes are awarded compensation, the only likable character is rewarded for fighting back (literally) and Zuckerberg is left as the world’s youngest billionaire with no friends and only his laptop to keep him company.

It’s a strange but memorable film built on the foundations of interaction. While cinematography is minimal (dorms look like dorms and company offices look sleek and sexy), the soundtrack by NIN frontman Trent Reznor is another classic in a year where soundtracks reign supreme. Fans of NIN collection Ghosts I-IV will enjoy the slightly newer versions of older songs whilst the rest of us can enjoy a nice soundtrack of sampled rock and electronic beats.

When all is said and done, The Social Network is a strange but engrossing tale of greed and betrayal with fantastic acting and an engrossing plot. For anyone’s who’s been poked or wanted a reason not to, this one’s for you.

8/10