The Social Network

After seeing the first trailer for The Social Network I was very unsure as to how successful a movie about the creation of Facebook. After seeing more trailers the interest grew and it became a movie that I definitely wanted to see. Having seen The Social Network it delivered on so many levels and is a movie that brings strong acting, a strong script and camera work that all comes together for a great artistic movie. It is one movie that has deserved the praised and it is very deserving of the awards it picked up during the Golden Globes and Oscars.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerburg the co-founder of Facebook. Eisenberg gives a career changing performance and does a brilliant job playing Zuckerburg. He plays Zuckerburg with a cold and focused social awkwardness that does not endear anyone to him. This was definitely real in relation to the actual Mark Zuckerburg. Similarly to Eisenberg's performance is Andrew Garfield's portrayal of Facebook co-founder and friend to Zuckerburg, Eduardo Saverin. Where Eisenberg plays the cold genius, Garfield brings the warmth that endears the audience to the creation of Facebook. The chemistry between Eisenberg and Garfield as the friends flows together perfectly. Yet what makes the chemistry even stronger are the moments of disagreements whether it be adding ads to facebook to bring in money or during the deposition dealing with the lawsuit between the two of them. These two roles are definitely the breakout roles for Eisenberg and Garfield.

The superb acting would all be for naught if the direction of the story was weak. The whole movie unfolds in a unique way, in that it centers around the deposition of the two lawsuits that Zuckerburg faced. From this aspect we are able to be pulled in to the story through flashbacks. While flashbacks have been used in various movies I loved how Fincher used the two depositions for the present, it gave a feel for the story that is different and new.

The cinematography for the film fits perfectly to the overall feel. The dark feel to the cameras gives a home video quality through most of the flashbacks. This feeling is almost as if the whole creation of Facebook was documented step by step using home videos to document step by step how the success slowly came about. The dark and graininess also helps the audience distinguish the flashbacks from the present. Not to mention this graininess also makes the flashbacks feel more memory like because of the foggy feeling with it. Having seen The Social Network now I would say while the main story is that of the creation of Facebook but I also saw it as a movie that is a commentary on society.

The Social Network is a movie that has lived up to its hype. The acting was superb and I expect a lot from Eisenberg in the future and I look forward to seeing how Andrew Garfield handles the role of Spiderman. The Social Network is a unique film that told the creation of Facebook creatively with flashbacks. Everything flowed together perfectly. I am giving The Social Network four buckets of popcorn out of five. This is a film that we will be adding to our movie collection in the near future.

-The Movie Man