When I heard earlier this year that they were coming out with a movie about Facebook, I frowned. I didn’t know why someone would want to sit for two hours and watch a movie about Facebook in the theaters and quickly discarded it as a bad move. Facebook is everywhere these days, I figured. It need not be at my local cinema too.
About a month ago, I saw the preview of the film using Kanye’s ‘Power’ as the musical backdrop and was suddenly intrigued. It wasn’t a movie about Facebook, but how it was created and tore two best friends apart. Seeing that this was the angle of the film and being I am a social media enthusiast, I was game.
So on Friday, me and my other half went to see the Facebook movie, ‘The Social Network’, which stars Jesse Eisenberg (as founder and creator Mark Zuckerberg), Andrew Garfield (as co-founder Edaurdo Saverin), and Justin Timberlake (as Napster co-founder Sean Parker). I wasn’t expecting a cinematic masterpiece and I was right. It wasn’t a masterpiece but pretty damn close.
The film begins with Harvard sophomore Zuckerman, upset with his ex girlfriend, starts a site called Face Mash which people can compare two girls and rate them on who is hotter. This site crashes Harvard’s servers and causes a stir on campus. Zuckerman is reprimanded for this stunt, but it was more fuel for his need to be accepted by his peers.
He becomes a big man on campus.
After meeting with row team champions, the Wonder-twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and another partner on starting a new site called the Harvard Connection that was meant to be exclusive to Harvard email addresses, Zuckerman devises a plan to launch his own site also exclusive to Harvard students. Called TheFacebook, Zuckerman takes the initial idea of the twins Winklevoss and runs with it. it becomes an immediate sensation.
Dodging law suits from Winklevoss and then later, his best friend, who was the original financier of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerman feels he is being fed to the wolves. It was his programming, his coding, and his implementation of the website that made its mark, and he spends the movie defending his actions.
You come off feeling somewhat sorry for this billionaire who used his site to gain acceptance. If only he could be cool enough to get into the exclusive clubs on campus, then he could belong.
Zuckerman also relies heavily on Napster co-founder, Sean Parker, for advice and his tips are invaluable. He teams Zuckerman with his first investor, Pay Pal founder Peter Thiel, and tells Zuckerman to change the name from The Facebook to simply, Facebook. Parker later must leave Facebook after being busted for cocaine possession.
The actors are incredible. You come off liking Zuckerman even though he is a smart mouthed rich guy with anti social tendencies. Justin Timberlake hits the ball out of the park in this role and you forget he brought sexy back four short years ago. His pop career isn’t apparent on screen.
Go see ‘The Social Network’. I was intrigued throughout the whole movie and it has made me appreciate those who have big ideas and make them happen, even under suspect circumstances.
‘The Social Network’ is directed by David Fincher and adapted from the novel The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich.
Have you seen ‘The Social Network’?
I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s high on my list. I actually don’t go to the movies often at all (maybe 2 or 3 times a year), but I’m definitely going to go see this one. I’m not techie, but I’m a social media person and I’d love to see this story brought to life on the silver screen.