And you know what, she kind of had a point. Hell, the site is only 6 years old and it got a movie made about it? Granted, Facebook is one of the biggest sites online, and certainly the most popular when it comes to social networking.
I was torn about seeing it myself. I thought it could be interesting, if told the right way. Well, luckily for me I scored passes to an early screening and saw it for free-read on for my review!
The film starts with Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) sitting in a bar with his girlfriend, having a conversation about the exclusive clubs at Harvard, the likes of which have historically hosted people like the great Theodore Roosevelt. Even from the first lines of dialogue we can tell that Mark is a fast thinker who always aims bigger and is always thinking of the next big thing. By the end of this conversation, through a series of events, this costs him his girlfriend, who tells him it's over and leaves him sitting at the table.
So how does Mark deal with this? He goes home, drinks more beer, and blogs about his now ex-girlfriend, including some rather unflattering things. From there, the ideas begin to spark, and suddenly Mark is hacking into student databases of Harvard and other local schools, explaining the entire process, before setting up a simple idea: put two girls next to each other, and choose who is hotter. Just after finishing the site, Mark emails the site to hundreds of people around Harvard, who log in at such high rates that they eventually crash the entire Harvard server.
Oh, did I mention this takes place within a few hours? Mark gets this all done between the break up and the next morning. He pisses a lot of people off by creating the site, including his ex-girlfriend and the tech guys at Harvard, who have never let their server crash.
But he also impresses a lot of people-among them, Tyler and Cameron Winkelvoss (Armie Hammer plays both twins), two Harvard seniors who have a great idea of expanding on Mark's site. They want to make a site for college kids where they can interact with their friends and meet new people, look at pictures, etc. Their coder became unavailable, so they offer the job to Mark, who agrees to help.
But soon, Mark looks at the Winkelvoss' plan, and, in his usual "think bigger" attitude, he decides he can make it better by adding more social aspects, such as a relationship status (the inspiration of which comes from a rather funny scene). He decides to take his best friend Eduardo (Andrew Garfield) along for the ride, largely to handle the business side of things.
From there, the site starts to explode, and gains the attention of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake, in an impressive performance), who became the original cyber punk when he created Napster, a free music sharing program that college kids loved and record labels hated.
Timberlake and Eisenberg as Sean Parker and Mark Zuckerberg
But as the site grows, Mark runs into legal trouble, both from the Winkelvoss twins and his own best friend. I won't mention what it is, partially because I don't want to ruin and partially because a fair amount of people already know the story behind that.
So, does the film work? Luckily, yes! A smart script from Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing) keeps the film funny, exciting, and very intriguing. This isn't a film about Facebook-it's about a punk folk hero of sorts, a college kid who decided to make a good idea great and ended up becoming the creator of one of the biggest phenomenons of this generation, as well as a young billionaire.
In that sense, "The Social Network" isn't about Facebook when it comes down to it-it's about a generation that saw the explosion of the internet and the way it changed how people socialized and interacted, and how one person helped define it all.
Bottom Line: "The Social Network" is well written, well acted, and is intriguing, funny, and exciting. It's a smart film that, down the road, will help define our generation.
Grade: A-
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