The Social Network

After being one of the most popular and hyped movies of 2010, I felt that now would be a good time to watch The Social Network again and see if the buzz was truly justified, or if it was simply overblown in the heat of the moment. The movie immediately makes a connection with most people as it's about the creation of Facebook, which is so widespread that I would probably struggle to name 5 people my age who don't use the site. Since the website upon which the movie is based is so universal, it's hardly surprising that the movie itself was really hyped and advertised before it even hit the screens, but there is substance behind all of the advertising as the writing in the film really gives it life and the sort of dramatic tension one might expect when there's a lawsuit worth billions of dollars involved.

The story of The Social Network is simply based on a true story of how Facebook was created. In a nutshell, Mark Zuckerberg is portrayed as a brilliant, but extremely narcissistic person who has the programming capabilities to create various websites. Eventually, he comes up with the idea of creating a social networking website with the goal of taking the entire college experience and putting it on the internet so that students can connect with each other in ways that were previously unimaginable. However, in doing this, Zuckerberg manages to alienate everyone close to him as he always holds his goal closer to heart than those who help him get there in the first place. While there has obviously been some artistic interpretation and revisions from the true story in the movie in order to make it more appealing to the viewers, it is interesting to get a sense of how Facebook grew to become the cultural icon that it is today even if the movie provides a liberal interpretation of what actually happened with the founding of Facebook. I enjoyed the buildup of the story and generally found the movie to be pretty entertaining, but the simplicity of the film's premise lacks a certain "wow" factor separating the good films from the great ones. 

The plot of The Social Network was certainly solid enough to evoke the kind of emotion you would expect out of a drama. However, one of my biggest issues with the movie was that Zuckerberg is portrayed as being an arrogant and selfish asshole for almost the entirety of the film, but in the last 10 minutes he suddenly has a change of heart and is willing to compromise with others and be kind. This might not sound like much of a problem, but it really frustrates me that he's shown to be so conceited and rude to others for the entire movie, and then at the last minute the film crew decides to pull a 180 and portray him as being a good guy with little explanation as to how and why this happened. It almost feels as though they could have made a second movie out of the last 10 minutes, but instead decided to cram it  in with the previous 100 minutes even though it doesn't make much sense within the context of the rest of the movie. 

In my mind, the greatest strength of The Social Network was the dialogue exchanged between Zuckerberg and various supporting characters. I found myself interested in what the characters, in particular Zuckerberg, had to say as each one was illuminated with a different personality. There was never any boring or meaningless dialogue that brought the movie to a halt, but the strong script also ensured that the audience could develop a deeper and more meaningful understanding of Zuckerberg and why he behaves in the manner he does. His witty lines clearly demonstrate his unbelievable intelligence in addition to his arrogant nature that pushes everyone away from him. Any given scene in the movie could be funny and switch to a more serious mood without it feeling awkward or out of place as Zuckerberg would always have several thoughts percolating in his mind and what he said usually set the tone for what was going on in the movie. The Social Network could have ended up as a drab and listless drama, but the witty and entertaining writing gives the movie a sense of purpose and really solidifies the simplistic storyline.

The Social Network isn't the most fascinating or captivating drama out there, but its strong writing really livens up a straightforward story. While the movie certainly doesn't provide a strictly historical account of Facebook's creation, it is interesting to get an idea of the popular site's origins in a more riveting format than simply reading about how it came to be. The ending of the movie didn't really fit into the overall context of the movie, but the buildup on the whole was effective enough that this wasn't a huge problem in the grand scheme of things. The Social Network is a very approachable film that can be watched by almost any audience, and I recommend it to anyone who's a fan of director David Fincher's previous movies or anyone looking for a new drama film to watch.