Written by: Kevin Berge
In this moment, Eisenberg realized he would never need to play another character again. (Image Courtesy of: amazon.com)
Quick Take: The Social Network portrays a fairly simple but important modern subject with precision visual storytelling from David Fincher and sharp memorable dialogue from Aaron Sorkin that creates a film that is far more than the sum of its parts. This is a drama of words driven by a career-defining performance from Jesse Eisenberg.
***This is an in-depth review of the 2010 movie The Social Network, focusing on its intricacies throughout the events of the film. It will contain spoilers and should not be read by those who have not seen the movie that want to see it without any information or insight into the film's ideas.***
Honestly, I've never been much for the historical biopic. Count me in for action, adventure, fantasy, and science fiction because I rarely enjoy exploring true history. The problem is that the genre is largely driven by the simple desire to wrench out drama from particular larger-than-life moments.
The Social Network is different and not just because its focus is on Facebook, an admittedly odd pitch for a film. The topic has hardly aged, focusing on a network that was instated in 2004, four years before this film's release. It's not all that interesting a topic on the surface.
What makes the film special is its laser focus on its central character, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), and defining the irony of his own isolation in the wake of creating the world's most powerful social media platform. This is a film about Facebook but also about the power of relationships.
Moreover, Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), the film's writer, is a master of manipulating truth. He does not seek out historical accuracy but storytelling accuracy. This story uses Zuckerberg as a frame of reference to dramatize a rise to power that brings with it a crippling loneliness.
In the hands of Sorkin and director David Fincher (Fight Club), a fascinating combo of brilliant creators, this is a visual marvel, masterfully paced to blaze through its story, and a narrative web, driven by quick-wit dialogue that is almost poetic. The two craft this film together into a thrilling tale despite little action and sparse drama.
For the most part, this is a straightforward chronological dramatization of Zuckerberg's founding of Facebook. However, it takes an interesting approach by intercutting that tale with a focus on two depositions brought on by the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer) and Eduard Saverin (Andrew Garfield).
While both have the same goal, legal compensation for Zuckerberg stealing from them, they are completely different tales. Despite this, they are thrown together, switching back and forth without warning to showcase that they are both focused on a singular goal: showcasing Zuckerberg's view of his own work.
Honestly, I've never been much for the historical biopic. Count me in for action, adventure, fantasy, and science fiction because I rarely enjoy exploring true history. The problem is that the genre is largely driven by the simple desire to wrench out drama from particular larger-than-life moments.
The Social Network is different and not just because its focus is on Facebook, an admittedly odd pitch for a film. The topic has hardly aged, focusing on a network that was instated in 2004, four years before this film's release. It's not all that interesting a topic on the surface.
What makes the film special is its laser focus on its central character, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), and defining the irony of his own isolation in the wake of creating the world's most powerful social media platform. This is a film about Facebook but also about the power of relationships.
Moreover, Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), the film's writer, is a master of manipulating truth. He does not seek out historical accuracy but storytelling accuracy. This story uses Zuckerberg as a frame of reference to dramatize a rise to power that brings with it a crippling loneliness.
In the hands of Sorkin and director David Fincher (Fight Club), a fascinating combo of brilliant creators, this is a visual marvel, masterfully paced to blaze through its story, and a narrative web, driven by quick-wit dialogue that is almost poetic. The two craft this film together into a thrilling tale despite little action and sparse drama.
For the most part, this is a straightforward chronological dramatization of Zuckerberg's founding of Facebook. However, it takes an interesting approach by intercutting that tale with a focus on two depositions brought on by the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer) and Eduard Saverin (Andrew Garfield).
While both have the same goal, legal compensation for Zuckerberg stealing from them, they are completely different tales. Despite this, they are thrown together, switching back and forth without warning to showcase that they are both focused on a singular goal: showcasing Zuckerberg's view of his own work.
Classic story: boy meets girl, girl dumps him, boy makes multi-billion dollar company to get his mind off her. (Image Courtesy of: highonfilms.com)
Those scenes are responses to the narrative, but only one scene in the film echoes throughout, his opening breakup with Erica Albright (Rooney Mara). This layered scene is the best of the movie and also wildly confusing on first listen because it is in fact two lines of conversation interweaving.
Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) on the precipice of breaking out is the only actor that can effortlessly match up to Eisenberg in delivering Sorkin dialogue, and together they create a dread that lingers over Zuckerberg while showcasing his frankly rude and impersonal attitude.
The conversation launches the plot even as Zuckerberg rarely admits how much it haunts him. The conversation constantly lingers with topics returning to build resentment. Zuckerberg talks about resenting rowing and desiring to be in a final club before meeting rowers the Winklevoss twins and Saverin gets into a final club.
Moreover, her words to close the conversation clearly hurt him, one of several times he is humanized by the pain he feels from social shaming. Every time, he thinks of her he pushes wider eventually ending the film finding her profile and hoping she will friend him.
While the motivation of getting girls is supposedly not even close to the truth of the story, it works for this story as it further pushes the social barriers Zuckerberg's struggles to overcome. When Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) arrives and promises him worldwide coolness, he jumps at it because he sees finally an end, a grand goal.
There is a darker side to Zuckerberg's social ineptness though in his friendship with Saverin. As he tries to create a social network to bring people together as friends, his best friend drifts further apart by his own doing. He pushes away a man who is his only sounding board and someone often hurt by association with Zuckerberg.
Saverin is Zuckerberg's original social connection, a point of reference that allows him to connect with others whether through Saverin's connections or his money. However, this makes Saverin expendable with Parker ultimately snaking his way in to push Saverin out.
Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) on the precipice of breaking out is the only actor that can effortlessly match up to Eisenberg in delivering Sorkin dialogue, and together they create a dread that lingers over Zuckerberg while showcasing his frankly rude and impersonal attitude.
The conversation launches the plot even as Zuckerberg rarely admits how much it haunts him. The conversation constantly lingers with topics returning to build resentment. Zuckerberg talks about resenting rowing and desiring to be in a final club before meeting rowers the Winklevoss twins and Saverin gets into a final club.
Moreover, her words to close the conversation clearly hurt him, one of several times he is humanized by the pain he feels from social shaming. Every time, he thinks of her he pushes wider eventually ending the film finding her profile and hoping she will friend him.
While the motivation of getting girls is supposedly not even close to the truth of the story, it works for this story as it further pushes the social barriers Zuckerberg's struggles to overcome. When Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) arrives and promises him worldwide coolness, he jumps at it because he sees finally an end, a grand goal.
There is a darker side to Zuckerberg's social ineptness though in his friendship with Saverin. As he tries to create a social network to bring people together as friends, his best friend drifts further apart by his own doing. He pushes away a man who is his only sounding board and someone often hurt by association with Zuckerberg.
Saverin is Zuckerberg's original social connection, a point of reference that allows him to connect with others whether through Saverin's connections or his money. However, this makes Saverin expendable with Parker ultimately snaking his way in to push Saverin out.
No one wants to watch frat boys succeed. Come on, what a terrible concept to make great. (Image Courtesy of: empireonline.com)
This is a story that plays along a fairly moral gray, but Saverin is the closest to a moral right. He just wants to be a part of something great while everyone else is trying to push him out. Seeing Zuckerberg especially turn against the man he still calls his best friend in the deposition is painful.
This dynamic is beautifully sold by the performances of Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) and Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge). I cannot imagine anyone else playing Zuckerberg, and it has nothing to do with look but personality. While Eisenberg has played similar roles, he's the ideal fit for Sorkin's dialogue that sells the part, the egotist with a damage soul.
Garfield meanwhile is easy to root for because Saverin is almost always in the right. He tries hard and does his best to help. Saverin's friendship keeps Zuckerberg remotely sociable. His slowly crippled confidence in the wake of Zuckerberg's betrayal is perfectly sold on the face of Garfield.
While Zuckerberg in this story is not a good person, it is hard to not feel for him at the conclusion of the film. In fact, this may be the film's major flaw. Before he is left alone to realize just how isolated he has become, he is told that he's not as bad as he makes himself out to be, attempting to deny the original statement of the film's beginning.
After utilizing The Accidental Billionaires, a biting novel that casts Zuckerberg as the antagonist to the protagonist Severin, as a frame of reference, Sorkin seems to play it careful at the conclusion, giving Zuckerberg some unearned redemption rather than keeping him at a morally ambiguous distance.
This story though should not be about making Zuckerberg out to be a hero or villain. He is neither. He was just a man with a brilliant idea that changed the world. Perhaps a more exhaustive story could have been told later in his life, but this is a brilliant focal point for the story with near perfect construction thanks to the men at the helm.
This dynamic is beautifully sold by the performances of Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) and Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge). I cannot imagine anyone else playing Zuckerberg, and it has nothing to do with look but personality. While Eisenberg has played similar roles, he's the ideal fit for Sorkin's dialogue that sells the part, the egotist with a damage soul.
Garfield meanwhile is easy to root for because Saverin is almost always in the right. He tries hard and does his best to help. Saverin's friendship keeps Zuckerberg remotely sociable. His slowly crippled confidence in the wake of Zuckerberg's betrayal is perfectly sold on the face of Garfield.
While Zuckerberg in this story is not a good person, it is hard to not feel for him at the conclusion of the film. In fact, this may be the film's major flaw. Before he is left alone to realize just how isolated he has become, he is told that he's not as bad as he makes himself out to be, attempting to deny the original statement of the film's beginning.
After utilizing The Accidental Billionaires, a biting novel that casts Zuckerberg as the antagonist to the protagonist Severin, as a frame of reference, Sorkin seems to play it careful at the conclusion, giving Zuckerberg some unearned redemption rather than keeping him at a morally ambiguous distance.
This story though should not be about making Zuckerberg out to be a hero or villain. He is neither. He was just a man with a brilliant idea that changed the world. Perhaps a more exhaustive story could have been told later in his life, but this is a brilliant focal point for the story with near perfect construction thanks to the men at the helm.
Final verdict:
Three Defining Success
Three Defining Success
- Aaron Sorkin's rhythmic dialogue that bares revisiting to uncover its layers.
- Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield's perfomances, playing off one another in a slowly degrading dynamic.
- A quick pace driven by David Fincher that never wavers or hesitates in pushing the narrative even past points of complication.
- An unnecessary attempt to reflect back and "forgive" Zuckerberg at the conclusion that could have been cut altogether without taking away from the story.
- This would ultimately be a role so defining for Eisenberg that every performance thereafter would carry remnants. Without Sorkin to voice the dialogue though, Eisenberg would come off far more contrived and annoying, missing the same level of depth and tact. Hopefully, this does not permanently linger over his career.