The Social Network (2010)

The Social Network is the hard hitting, critically-acclaimed portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg; the creator of Facebook. It stars Jesse Einsenberg (Zombieland, Now You See Me) as Zuckerberg, as he fights challenging legal and personal battles. The film shows the stages of Facebooks’ creation from inception to its eventual worldwide success in tandem with Mark Zuckerberg’s rise to fame from his nerdy student beginnings.

The film featured some very good acting from both Jesse Einsenberg and Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man); who played Facebook’s Co-Founder - Edwardo Saverin - and did an exceptional job with its plot. Although it is essentially a biography, the way the timeline was stringed together with various period leaps, it ensured viewer attention throughout the film. The character arcs of both Zuckerberg and Saverin were certainly worthy of a “like” as the characters seemed to gradually mature while still maintaining their core characteristics. The scores in this film are amazing and definitely add to the atmosphere. The entire soundtrack seemed to really “fit” each of the scene(s) it featured in.

Although the film had a lot to offer, it did seem overcrowded. The lengthy legal battles were not explained to the viewer until midway through the film which could cause confusion. Also, the cinematography was a little bland with very few imaginative or memorable shots to mention.

It seemed to me that some of the characters were potentially misrepresented for effect, such as Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) who was depicted, as essentially; a paranoid, caffeine-addicted paedophile. This was also the case for some of the other characters and for several of the scenes which seemed massively exaggerated. For example, in one scene Mark Zuckerberg turns up to the Harvard hearing wearing Adidas flip flops, PJ bottoms and a hoodie, no fancy camera angles required here, as the over-stated scene shouts volumes.

In summary, this film is a nice-to-watch-on-a-rainy-day kind of movie and I would recommend it to anyone who is into biographies, Facebook or technology in general. Although, don’t take everything you see in this movie for truth, as much like Facebook itself, you only see what the social network wants you to.