The Social Network [DVD] [2010]

I must admit I was doubtful that a film about the inception and subsequent growth of Facebook would be able to hold my interest, especially since it would feature the two court cases against creator Mark Zuckerberg. The idea of a legal drama based around a social networking site sounded tedious to me, but enough people had recommended it that I decided to give it a try.

The biggest surprise was how much of the movie was focused on the relationship between Mark Zuckerberg and his best friend, Eduardo Saverin, who helped finance the site in its early days. The relationship between the two and how it eventually leads them into the courtroom was fascinating and the movie seemed to characterise them well, bringing up interesting questions as to what was the reason that these two friends ended up becoming opposing counsel in a court-case.

Everyone is familiar with Facebook, although I'd wager not everyone was aware of its origins as 'The Facebook', a strictly invitation-only social network designed for use in Havard University as a way for students to develop online circles of friends, before the expansion eventually made it the multi-billion dollar company it became with everyone and their nan having Facebook accounts.

Jesse Eisenburg plays the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, with a slight aspergers tint to his personality. He has some subtle behaviour quirks, such as his distance with his friends and collegaues and often not looking at people when they talk to him. It portrays him as unlikeable and the biggest irony is that the person responsible for creating a social networking website that links friends from all over the world, is actually a bit of a loner.

Faring slightly better on the likeability scale is Eduardo Saverin, played by Andrew Garfield, who is Mark's best friend and helps him financially during the websites origins. The film seems to portray him as a nice guy, but with limited dreams, who wants to settle for the immediate pay-off, whilst Zuckerberg and later acquaintance, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) have their sights set on building the site up globally.

The film is framed by the court-cases that are taking place in current-day with flashbacks to the university days where Zuckerberg and Saverin are developing the website and trying to keep it running without investors. Once Sean Parker gets involved, the friendship becomes strained and leads to the eventual fallout of the two parties, setting the court-case into motion.

I really found this to be enjoyable, despite the fact the subject matter was fairly mundane - I mean, there was no real action or intrigue, but the mundane court-case was made so much more interesting by the fact that we'd gotten to know (and in some cases, like) these characters through the flashbacks that it was almost sad to see them becoming bitter and spiteful towards each other during the main court-case, showing that money and success in business often comes at the cost of losing true friendship.

Whilst the facts in the film might not be completely accurate and some of the events glamorised somewhat to keep the film narrative interesting, it was enjoyable and a bit of an eye-opener to see how the website that I log into daily came into existence and the personal cost of such a thing. Now, I'm sure Mark Zuckerberg isn't crying into his billions of dollars over his business decisions that cut out his friends from his life, but it does raise the question of whether you would sell out your friends in order to succeed in life.

Like many people, I was actively resistant to the idea of watching a movie telling the story of Facebook. Smarmy frat-house brats high-fiving as they hunch around a computer screen with a few "brewskis" - becoming billionaires en route - sounded like a recipe for the most teeth-grindingly awful movie ever: Porky's for Dorks, if you will. I went reluctantly.

Thank God I did though. I should have had more faith in David Fincher - he's a smart enough film maker to realise that this movie would only ever work if it focused on the genuinely extraordinary, which in this case means the birth of a new way of interacting, and the personalities that brought it into existence. This would be more than enough material to make an interesting film, but Aaron (West Wing) Sorkin's script also brings in issues of class, the generational divide, intelligence, money and the new economy. What results is a riveting, fast-paced film about the excitement of new ideas, the intoxicating rush of the succesful dot com, and the almighty high of billions of dollars, all channelled through something which all of us are familiar with and can relate to. Nothing less, then, than that rarest of beasts, a film which successfully addresses The Times In Which We Live.

The film's (already famous) opening scene shows Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) being dumped by his girlfriend, and from this we immediately learn several key things - Zuckerberg is possessed of an unapologetic, almost Asperger's-level intelligence; and he is terrible at human interaction. Zuckerberg takes revenge on his ex online, by setting up a website enabling fellow Harvard students to rate female students by attractiveness, and while this stunt earns him an academic suspension, it also brings him to the attention of his peers, some of whom have ideas for websites of their own. And so begins the story of Facebook; Zuckerberg's vision, but possibly not his idea.

All the performances are remarkable, though the three main male leads - Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake - are nothing short of outstanding. Doubtless the real story was duller, more ragged and more painful, but in focusing on the emotional truth of the story Fincher and Sorkin have created a brilliant and entertaining fable for our times. Shame that women barely figure in it at all, apart from as heartless bitches or sex objects, but you can't have everything. Recommended.

This is a very well made film but with Aaron Sorkin involved, who would expect anything else: he really is the master of a fast paced gritty script as anyone who has viewed The West Wing would agree. You get the inside, albeit, non validated, account of what Jesse Eisenberg was really like - and some of it's not too good but there's something for everyone in this film, whether you're a social network geek or just an old timer who wants to find out what makes networking so popular.