THE SOCIAL NETWORK - REVIEW


David Fincher directs this Dead Poets Society for the internet age with gusto and brings the controversial creation of the popular social networking site Facebook to life. Unfortunately, there's really not much to tell. Zuckerberg comes up with it (kinda), there are a few lawsuits...that's pretty much it. And there's nothing more boring than people sitting at their computer and going to meetings. That said, Fincher makes the story flow perfectly and there's never a dull moment, which is a huge achievement in itself.

Unfortunately, at times the film attempts to make Harvard, rowing and typing on one's laptop way cooler and snappier than it really should be. He's Mark Zuckerberg not Beethoven! And no amount of babes, coke or...HTML can change that.

In fact, what is most interesting about this whole story isn't so much the creation of the website or the lawsuits that followed but rather the deterioration of Zuckerberg's relationship with his best friend (played very well here by Andrew "Spidey" Garfield) and the "nerd triangle" involving both and Justin Timberlake who, day by day, becomes more and more like a less weird-looking version of Quentin Tarantino.

It is Jesse Eisenberg who steals the show though, proving once again that he is one of the finest young actors working today. After The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland and Zombieland he's pretty much had a flawless journey so far. If he was as good a writer/director as he is an actor he'd be the new Woody Allen.

The Social Network doesn't have much to say and isn't so much based on an interesting story rather than an interesting irony: Zuckerberg is a pretty dislikeable guy, or at least he's portrayed that way here, with no friends who creates a website for friends to connect on. Had the film focused more on his personality rather than the court cases he was involved in, we could have had a very rich biopic. As it stands, this is a well-made, engaging film but it won't change your life or teach you that much about Facebook's creator. Anything by David Fincher is worth a look anyway. Or to put it in a way you can all understand:

Would I *poke* that film? No. But I'd definitely add it as friend.

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