The Social Network

The Social Network directed by David Fincher is a story about a young Mark Zuckerberg, who founded the famous social network Facebook, in his Harvard dorm. The story starts as a quick argument between Zuckerberg and his girlfriend, Erica Albright played by Rooney Mara. After breaking up, Zuckerberg goes into a drunken rage and starts to write about his ex-girlfriend in a blog of his and decides to rate college girls on their looks. This started an up roar, which Zuckerberg was punished for. In order to redeem his reputation he seeks help from the twin brothers, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss played by Armie Hammer. They needed help to form a website to help socialize and meet women but that is when Zuckerberg realized he could build a social network empire. Yet building such an empire, Zuckerberg realizes that one can quickly make enemies as fast as they can make friends.

                  Jesse Eisenberg plays a young, selfish, computer genius Mark Zuckerberg. Eisenberg made his character so believable that you could have believed he was the real Zuckerburg. What helped his character was his fast talking and emotionless responses. An actor who surprised me in this movie was Justin Timberlake, who plays Sean Parker. To be honest, when most singers cross over to the film industry, it usually shows signs of a disaster waiting to happen. Although Justin is well known for singing pop music, he was unexpectedly very decent in his role as Sean Parker. He was very convincible showing Parker as a notorious rebel entrepreneur. Another actress that I need to point out is Brenda Song. Brenda Song surpassed my expectations, seeing she was a famous Disney star. She is not seen in many “serious” roles but played her role as Christy Lee very well.

                  The movie in general was pleasing. It showed an array of beautiful shots and cinematography. The style complimented the plot of the story, filming it back and forth from present to past. What was not pleasing was the pace of everything. The actors spoke to fast at times and tried to put so many years into a couple of hours, which is very difficult. Also there were at times some dull scenes. Viewers don’t want to see 10 to 15 minutes of just people sitting around a table arguing. Yet the flashing from present to past was a creative way to edit this movie, at times it would be a bit confusing. For example, if the viewer lost their interest during the dull moments, then all of the sudden action reappears, it can confuse the viewer of where the story is going. I don’t know whether that was the intention but it wasn’t helping me follow the story. Other than these minor defects, The Social Network was a great movie.